More Pond, or How To Reduce Flooding
- Thread starter OkeeDon
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This is what he is spreading the dirt into. The water is displaced and absorbed and turns to soup. He runs the loader over it to compact it. We won't be doing any construction here, and as it dries, it will more-or-less compact itself even more, so we don't have to worry about the height of a lift or vibratory compaction. Most of this area will actually end up being a vegetable garden for Grandma Betsy and her 3 grandchildren next door to share. They're 5, 3 and 8 months, so she should have years of sharing ahead.
You can see the truck parked next to the excavator in the background, which is an indication of how far we are moving the dirt.
You can see the truck parked next to the excavator in the background, which is an indication of how far we are moving the dirt.
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This is close to the end of Day 1. About 1/4 of the expansion is complete. Things will go faster tomorrow (which is actually today as I write this). The old pond is on the far side of the loader. They will dig the new pond towards it, then pump the water down quite a ways and take out the land plug between old and new.
Unfortunately, st 2 PM I have to appear as the victim in a restitution hearing for a juvenile offender who broke into my commercial property, so I had to leave Okeechobee last evening and come back to Port St. Lucie, then go to Fort Pierce this afternoon for the hearing. I should be back in Okeechobee late today and will play catch-up with the pictures, then I can get back to sequence tommorrow.
Unfortunately, st 2 PM I have to appear as the victim in a restitution hearing for a juvenile offender who broke into my commercial property, so I had to leave Okeechobee last evening and come back to Port St. Lucie, then go to Fort Pierce this afternoon for the hearing. I should be back in Okeechobee late today and will play catch-up with the pictures, then I can get back to sequence tommorrow.
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Mavrik02
Silver Member
Very interesting project Don. Please post more pictures as you put the pond in and get things final graded.
In Pennsylvania they would call that area "wetlands" and after 5 years (and about $7000) of applications, red tape, and court battles they might let you build a campfire on your property twice a year. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
In Pennsylvania they would call that area "wetlands" and after 5 years (and about $7000) of applications, red tape, and court battles they might let you build a campfire on your property twice a year. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Not sure about our elevation here; at my home nearer the coast (about 10 miles inland) we're 14 feet above sea level. I think I remember hearing that we're about 32 feet here in Okeechobee, which is about 50 miles inland.
However, the altitude qabove seal level is not the determining factor; it's the height above the ground water table. In the areas pictured, the ground water table is about 4" to 8" above the ground. It goes down in the winter, and is high every spring/summer with the rainy season, but for the past 3 years, we have had an exceptional amount of rain, and the ground is increasingly saturated.
The ground is essentially flat; the water has nowhere to run. It either seeps into the ground if the water table is low enough, evaporates, or sits there. This year, it's sitting there. The only long term solution is to raise the ground enough that it DOES run off somewhere. In this case, it's to the highway drainage ditch to the North, the street swale to the East (which runs into the highway ditch), or to my neighbor's property to the South. I'm trying to avoid that, and attempting to build up the South side enough to have it drain North. Unfortunately, I also have to build up the North side high enough to keep the highway ditch from backflowing onto my property. This, of course, means that the South side has to be raised even more. I doubt I will ever have enough dirt to fix all of it, all of the time.
We bought the property in a "normal" year after being familiar with it for the previous 6 years my daughter and family had lived next door. The flooding this year is extraordinary, but I'm not counting on it returning to "normal" anytime soon. Thus, I raising as much as I can afford to raise.
However, the altitude qabove seal level is not the determining factor; it's the height above the ground water table. In the areas pictured, the ground water table is about 4" to 8" above the ground. It goes down in the winter, and is high every spring/summer with the rainy season, but for the past 3 years, we have had an exceptional amount of rain, and the ground is increasingly saturated.
The ground is essentially flat; the water has nowhere to run. It either seeps into the ground if the water table is low enough, evaporates, or sits there. This year, it's sitting there. The only long term solution is to raise the ground enough that it DOES run off somewhere. In this case, it's to the highway drainage ditch to the North, the street swale to the East (which runs into the highway ditch), or to my neighbor's property to the South. I'm trying to avoid that, and attempting to build up the South side enough to have it drain North. Unfortunately, I also have to build up the North side high enough to keep the highway ditch from backflowing onto my property. This, of course, means that the South side has to be raised even more. I doubt I will ever have enough dirt to fix all of it, all of the time.
We bought the property in a "normal" year after being familiar with it for the previous 6 years my daughter and family had lived next door. The flooding this year is extraordinary, but I'm not counting on it returning to "normal" anytime soon. Thus, I raising as much as I can afford to raise.
BradK
Bronze Member
Wow Don you are doing worse then I am with water. I have though about diggin out my pond also but do not want it any bigger want the most pasture I can get. I have resorted to buying a few loads of fill a month however the prices are rapidly increasing. I have to cut the flow off from my neighbors place who has a large pad just off the fence line that he did in the past six months with no thougt of water oh well. The last 4 truck loads were in the $120-130 per truck load range. I ended up cuttin a swail diagonal across the property to drain it out to the street though the pond drain. I was out by your property on work the other day looked nice.
