Freshwater Spring Development

[Foozle]

I live in drought-stricken South Carolina and I have a freshwater spring that is still flowing fairly good even with the dry weather. Historically, it looks like the spring used to flow down a small path through the woods and drain into the creek nearby. Over time, the pathway has silted up and the flow is non-existent now. Instead, there is just a large soggy area around the spring head and soggy areas along the former pathway it took to the creek.

I was thinking about digging out the soggy area around the spring head to form a small pond (maybe 20ft by 40ft or so). I don't want to have to build a dam, etc., so my plan was to just dig a bit larger over time and see if the spring would keep the pond full despite the drainage, etc. If it totally dried up, I'd keep the soil handy and just fill in if needed. Basically I'd just try to turn the boggy areas into areas that would hold water instead of being a swamp.

Anyone see any risk in this or have any advice? One thing I ran into already was as I started digging, the hole filled in quickly with water and it makes further digging rather difficult. Any recommendations on pumps that might be suitable to move the water "downstream" while I dig?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Dave

[plowking]

If it is a good enough spring and the area is protected,it could be worth some money. We have some bottling companies up here selling it in stores. Some towns,[ours] are instituting water ordinances to have some control over natural resources[ Ecosystem protection]. You might have to deal with some agencies,Environmental services,army corp. of engineers, etc. to do what you want,especially if you make it public knowledge. plowking

[Deerlope]

If you can make a small dam to get 3 feet of falling water you can generate enough power for you home and sell some to boot. I got a good stream but no elevation and no prospect of falling water.
Now to try to answer your question. Try to divert the water from 1/2 as you dig. Just let it go, then dig the other half, then fill in where it has been draining off to.

[lhfarm]

Originally Posted by plowking

If it is a good enough spring and the area is protected,it could be worth some money. We have some bottling companies up here selling it in stores. Some towns,[ours] are instituting water ordinances to have some control over natural resources[ Ecosystem protection]. You might have to deal with some agencies,Environmental services,army corp. of engineers, etc. to do what you want,especially if you make it public knowledge. plowking

I agree. It may not be an oil well, but you may have a very valuable natural resource. There is a local company ::_:: walnut grove spring water ::_:: drink deeply ::_:: doing big business with spring water. Even if you aren't interested in a commerical operation, I'd do some research on developing a spring and building a spring house. Keep us informed of your progess.

[EddieWalker]

Dave,

Terminology is everything if you live in an area where some government agency wants to tell you what to do with your land. For example, you are not digging a pond, you are cleaning out an existing pond. The difference is HUGE if some bus body decides that you are in some violation of their petty little agency. We did this all the time in California, and they are especially anal about their desire to cause grief to landowners.

Now that you have decided to clean out your existing pond, I would consider a special backhoe bucket designed for wet mud. The obvious difference is there is almost no sides to the bucket. This way, the mud does not stick to the bucket and youc an dump it real easy. Otherwise, the mud will pack in real fast and be a nightmare to dig.

Second, you need a place for the soil and a way to get it there. When I dug my pond, I made my dame much wider then it needed to be. I dug out allot of dirt and just piled it onto the back of the dam. Eventually I ended up with a very gradual, natural looking slope.

As for bottling water, that market is just about dead. Even before the cost of gasoline went crazy, the bottled water companies were reporting losses. Things like the reports that tap water was actually cleaner then bottled water really hurt them. They only filter their water, but do not do the same level of testing or purifying that a Water Utility does. Even with a declining market, limited regulations, there are still quite a few regulations that you would have to meet if you ever consider selling anything that people consume. Big money on any level of operation.

I would just dig a little, spend some time moving the spoils and see how it goes. I would dig as deep as possible as that will be the hardest part to change. If you only dug so deep, but later wanted it deeper, type of situation. Just go down as far as possible and work at it that way.

I bought a decent semi trash pump off of ebay that has worked well for me. I found that hoses were cheaper from Norther Tool then anything I could find on ebay, but that was several years ago. Things are always changing. I don't know if I would bother with a pump, it might help get the water out, but unless you let it dry out, you will still be dealing with mud. You don't need to see it to dig it.

I'd also buy the best grease that you can get and probably grease it halfway through the day just to be safe.

Sounds like a fun project.

Eddie

[Airic]

I have the exact situation and about the same size pond. My spring runs at about 200-250 gph. I'm currently working on cleaning out the pond and enlarging it a bit. Over the years people have dumped garbage and it also silted over into a big stinking mess. The silt was so thick I didn't realize it was a pond let alone spring for the first 6 months I owned the place. Thought it was a hole dug to dump garbage.

First thing I had done was dig a trench downhill to drain the pond and installed 3" PVC pipe for a main clean out. My trench ended up being 100' long and has a fall of about 6'. I bought a 40' x 2 1/2" pool hose and connected that to the pond side. With the far end capped I fill the pipe with water and then uncapped to start the siphon/vacuum. This is by far the best method I have found and I can actually excavate earth and rock. There is so much suction force you have to be careful. I have found the benefit of doing this is not over disturb the spring and I figure I'll need to clean it at least every year or so anyway. What started as a 1' deep pond/hole turned out to be about 5' deep. The bottom of my pond is all pit run and really looks good and yes, I can see the bottom now. I did about 4' of silt in about 2 weeks. Clean until the pond is empty and do it again the next day or when full again. Smelly job as you have to get down into the muck. I still have a ways to go on the rest of my restoration but it is starting to look allot better. Now I知 collecting all the big rocks I can come across to line the sides.

[srjones]

Spring Development

An informative article on Springs, courtesy of Alberta, Canada.

[philbuilt]

Can you dig away from the mud / silt? Start the pond at the other end. Is the dirt dryer there? Try digging in the dry areas of the pond expansion. this will allow you to dig and set a drain. Go deep as you can and connect when your ready. I have done this twice now on my pond expansion. Once the water is diverted dig the other part. The spoils will be your worst enemy as they pile up fast. Pictures are always a great help.
good luck
Phil

[Foozle]

Thanks for the responses.

With regard to terminology, yeah, the state would probably frown upon disturbing a potential "wetland," so as you say, I'm digging the silt out of an existing pond rather than digging a new one.

Good idea on digging further away from the spring source first - I may try that. The only problem is I wanted to dig at the source first so as to see whether the water supply will support the size of the pond. My plan was to enlarge a little at a time and see if the spring supported the size. This is why I thought of using the pump to clear out the existing hole and enlarge a little each week and let fill back up. I'm sure this isn't efficient, but I don't want to overcommit on size until I'm sure the water source is sufficient to be sustainable.

Yeah - the spoil issue is already an issue. I'll need to get a dump truck or dump trailer to be able to cart off the dirt. It seems like it might be fairly rich soil as it is jet black, so I'm thinking about amending my garden soil with it.

I'll try to take some pics over the weekend to give you a better idea of what I'm working with.

Thanks,

Dave

[dtd24]

ok dave, sounds like a cool project as I too have the same situation. This forum has some good info. Eddie, you sound like you may have delt with the DEC a bit. Good advice. I like the "cleaning out existing pond" term. Reminds me of my own in regards to the building department of "repairing existing". "Thats not a new roof, I just repaired the existing roof !!".lDefinitely need some pics here. I have a couple of projects to do before I tackle my pond, but I really have to get to it.

oh yeah, my names dave too, so we have alot in common!!