Dr Doolittle, I presume?
How best to dam a creek?????
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pmsmechanic
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Actually I was thinking that if the pond had inflow it would also have outflow which would keep the water fresh.
100 years ago, this family did just what you suggest.
Three Against the Wilderness
Timeless tales about wilderness living. Eric Collier's…
paulsharvey
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So, once again, I did Not read all pages; so forgive me.
Only approaching this as a how to do it, not a should, or are you allowed
Look at how a flood irrigation set-up is built. You have a flood gate controlled by a chain, over the upstream side of an 18" piece of pipe; set the pipe at the invert of the creek, backfill and compact, and grass. This is all assuming we are dealing with a max of maybe 3 ft of head. Once you go above that, we move into proper dam, with more concerns, but you can have a 3ft deep watering hole/pond/swimming area, with pretty low effort.
Only approaching this as a how to do it, not a should, or are you allowed
Look at how a flood irrigation set-up is built. You have a flood gate controlled by a chain, over the upstream side of an 18" piece of pipe; set the pipe at the invert of the creek, backfill and compact, and grass. This is all assuming we are dealing with a max of maybe 3 ft of head. Once you go above that, we move into proper dam, with more concerns, but you can have a 3ft deep watering hole/pond/swimming area, with pretty low effort.
paulsharvey
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So, I back tracked and read down 35 out of 66 posts, and kinda regret it....
I did a very quick Google search, and found 18" flood gates for anywhere from $200 to $1500 for proper gate value types. Some have a weir style, where when they over top the gate, they are free to flow, some look like a exhaust flap on a peice of equipment. Now, there is a hazard to letting 5 or 6 ft of head build up.
So, if we walk through this; we add a good base of 18" of clay/gravel, and compact that we'll, we then put a 8 ft long section of 18" HDPE pipe on top and back fill, and compact. We then install the flood gate; we have an gate open depth of 18", very manageable. We close the gate, we build upto 36". If you are not there daily, I would look for a weir style, just incase you get heavy flooding while not Around. As a safety feature, we can install a 8" pipe at about 4 ft elevation, or better yet, we build our 'dam' 5 ft high, Except in the a spillway area, we leave it down at 4ft, and lay soil cement bags over the spill way (quikcrete from Home Depot is fine, leave it in bag and lay over the spillway). This acts as an armor for our spillway to prevent erosion, But also acts to so degree as disapator blocks, slowing water to some degree, also slowing erosion.
I did a very quick Google search, and found 18" flood gates for anywhere from $200 to $1500 for proper gate value types. Some have a weir style, where when they over top the gate, they are free to flow, some look like a exhaust flap on a peice of equipment. Now, there is a hazard to letting 5 or 6 ft of head build up.
So, if we walk through this; we add a good base of 18" of clay/gravel, and compact that we'll, we then put a 8 ft long section of 18" HDPE pipe on top and back fill, and compact. We then install the flood gate; we have an gate open depth of 18", very manageable. We close the gate, we build upto 36". If you are not there daily, I would look for a weir style, just incase you get heavy flooding while not Around. As a safety feature, we can install a 8" pipe at about 4 ft elevation, or better yet, we build our 'dam' 5 ft high, Except in the a spillway area, we leave it down at 4ft, and lay soil cement bags over the spill way (quikcrete from Home Depot is fine, leave it in bag and lay over the spillway). This acts as an armor for our spillway to prevent erosion, But also acts to so degree as disapator blocks, slowing water to some degree, also slowing erosion.
paulsharvey
Elite Member
The same thing as a weir really, you could use the cheapest of the cheap, and about 24" behind the gate, you could cut the top off the pipe, so that if water builds up padt your desired height, it would simply dump into our pipe through the hole in the top. It might seem ghetto, but it will work. Maybe screw a expanded metal grate over to keep debris out. Assuming you have the equipment and the backfill material; you can get this done for less than $1000 in pipe and one of the cheaper gates, and still buy 20 bags of quickcrete to act as soil cement bags.
Yander
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I'm concerned if the SS finds out they will stop the whole thing. Oh wait, it appears to be on a slope, never mind.Yes. I even informed the Coast Guard and FBI.
Yander
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Our neighbor put a damb in our creek using just a bunch of flat rocks stacked. It stayed for years and years until they left and I think the next person that bought his house tore it down.
We did use it as a very nice swimming hole as a kid. Our cousins still talk about picking leaches off from that hole.
We did use it as a very nice swimming hole as a kid. Our cousins still talk about picking leaches off from that hole.
Around here this is the only solution - you can't get permission to dam a watercourse and you aren't allowed to "interfere" with the wildlife if they move in...
