Thanks guys! Eddie I'm glad if these pictures help you in any way. It's so easy to look at a finished pond or lake and overlook all the work and planning that went into it.
The 2 dozer's the sheep's foot, and the track hoe worked in conjunction with the engineer on my lot for 10 days straight. Plus a small backhoe came back 15 days later to install the plastic overflow pipe.
I was sorry that I was working when they came in to install the overflow, so I have no pictures of it to show. however my drawing shows the basic design. I recommend using the anti-seep collars as they can also prevent an unnecessary leak at the pipe itself.
An emergency spillway was incorporated into an extreme end of our dam. In the 6 years that we have been here all the excess water has been controlled by the overflow pipe, I have never seen water going over the emergency spillway but it's there just in case. And every pond that uses a dam should have one. If water is left to breach over a dam uncontrolled it's just a matter of time before the dam will fail.
There are no springs that feed our pond. Our lot collects and directs rainwater to the pond. I also plumbed all the home downspouts to the pond as well. You would be surprised at how much water just the downspouts add during a good hard rain.
I did install an anti-varmint guard on the backside of the overflow and a trash guard screen at the waterline to keep the fish in the pond. Some fish like the White Amour will follow the current and out the overflow if you don't take some precaution to make sure that doesn't happen. My Grass Carp are now about 20 to 25 pounds each so I would hate to lose them.
