Need to divert water in pasture

[HorseMom]

Looking for a low cost, effective solution to divert "run-off" water in my pasture.

Here's what I have:
JD4310
front loader with 4in1 bucket and teeth
box blade

my problem:
our 8 acre pasture is on a gently and irregularly sloping hill overlooking a creek and the cove created where a creek runs into the main river that eventually forms a very large lake.

there are several places on my land where the natural water run-off has created water channels that are more or less full depending on water tables.

In my pasture, however, there is a fairly level plain where one of the natural run-off points comes under the paved road with a drain that just ends where the pasture begins. Most if the time there is no water, but during wet weather, this water just spills acrss the pasture (about 350') and eventually winds up in the cove.

Of course, this is the perfect space for our new dressage ring (homemade), and the topography is such that I believe I could fairly easily divert the water to follow a natural treeline. That is, the diversion is only about 20' to the side and the slope is fairly continuous downwards to the cove. So gravity should work for me.

Just need advice on the best way to accomplish this.

Could I create an open channel? What would I line this with? Could I use 4" drainage pipe"? How deep would I bury it? Can I make the trench with my available tools? Or do I need a trencher/ditch witch?

I would prefer buried drainage pipe, because then I do not have 1) open water to attract mosquitos and 2) something for the horses to jump every time they move from point A to point B. Is that pipe strong enough enough to withstand galloping thoroughbreds? How deep would I have to bury it?

Should I make a little "holding pond" right at the beginning point? Is 4" big enough? How do I figure that one out? What about pipe clogging - do I make a screened cover for the mouth of the pipe?

Anyone try a similar project?

 

[Currmudgeon]

I'm not visualizing your property, or how much water you want to move, so I may be steering you wrong.

The key to this is getting the channel profile right. You may need to rent an engineer's level, the thing with the telescope, and shoot some grades to make sure it will all work. Water not liking to flow uphill, and all that.

It may be what you need to do is fill in the low spots. If this is a significant creek, check with the local water resources people about the need for a permit for filling the floodplain. The regulatory people can get nasty if crossed, but can be pretty helpful, too.

I prefer open channels if I can get them. An open channel will move a helluva lot more water than the pipe you put in it, and you don't have to buy the pipe. Keep your horizontal angles gentle, as water is lazy and doesn't like to go around corners. To divert flowing water into your diversion ditch, come off the source ditch at a shallow angle, and make your ditch a litle lower than the source ditch. Putting a few boulders into the main ditch to acy as a partial diversion dam may help.

This is the sort of project that sometimes benefits from some fine tuning with a shovel or a FEL, once you see how it works.

For ditch excavation, a 3-Pt scoop scraper sounds about right, if you don't have a backhoe.

 

[rambler]

You need a big enough tile to handle the waterflow that comes to it.

It is difficult to visualize what you are doing from your descrption.

I have several miles, maybe 10 or so, of tile under my farm land. There are just a few simple rules:

You can't beat physics - water will flow downhill where it wants to, and you can't make it wait when more is coming, has to go somewhere.

Water freezes, you don't want it standing in a pipe when it does.

You need a big enough pipe to handle the full flow, or you need a really big pond to hold the full flow until a little pipe catches up.

Water will continue to want to go & do what it did before, trying to trick it to go somewhere else requires a lot of smarts and working with what you have.


Guess to figure it out, first you need to say how much water is coming - what's the area you are draining? I have a 6' drainage ditch going through my farm, water comes from ~10,000 acres upstream of me, and we can expect a 2" rainfall, while 5-6" happens. If there is a 3" rainfall upstream of me I can ecpect to lose about 10 acres of crops - the water flows backwards in the tile to my field, as the water table rises. Takes 3 days for the field to drain, and crops die in 48 hours. My tough luck.....

I'm sure you are designing something much smaller, but the point is - look upstream, and figure out carefully what it is you are dealing with. The info you supplied really doesn't help much. Certainly what you want to do can work, and work well. I would sooner run the proper size tile about 3' deep in the ground right where the water runs now. Drainage is _easy_. Diverting water to go someplace it doesn't natuarally go now can be _difficult_. Would take a lot more info & study to come up with a real plan.

For that matter, it's only mildly difficult to get _drainage_ permits, but diverting water can cause all sorts of headache is some do-gooder feels you have altered a natural waterway or wildlife habitat by changing the flow of water. Folks can chuckle, but I know people who got by with 'anything' and I also know people who faced $10,000+ fines for doing practically nothing.......

--->Paul

 

[John_Mc]

Personally, I'd use the boxbladed and make a drainage swale. That's what I did in one of our pastures. I kept the sides sloped very gently, and made a wide swale. It's smooth enough and gradual enough slope that I can drive a tractor or riding mower right through it. My neighbors pastured their horses in it last year with no problems... they walks or ran right across it all year... no need to jump. The slope along the swale was gradual enough that I just planted conservation mix in it to keep the water from eroding it. If there was more flow, I would have lined it with a bit of gravel (the faster the flow, the bigger the rocks need to be to prevent erosion).

This has the advantage of being very cheap, no tile or pipe to buy, and you already have all the equipment you need.

John Mc

 

[HorseMom]

Thanks

By swale, do you mean basically a sloped on both sides long "rut", that I can engineer by dragging the box blade at an angle?

what is conservation mix?

this sounds like a plan - last year was quite wet, so we had a soggy area most of the spring. This year has been drier, and we've had absolutely no problem.

So this is actually not a "semi-permanent" problem, just an occasional problem. If I'm understanding the swale concept, it may be just the ticket.

 

[txdon]

HorseMom, with just the FEL and a Boxblade I extended this swell or terrace to divert water to a pond.
Terrace post

 

[44trxfun]

HorseMom, I think others have given you some good advice here. Your choice of solutions will be based on personal preference for surface or subsurface drainage, among other things. If you go the surface water route, be very aware that it doesn't take a lot of slope for water to start "doing it's thing". Depending on your particular setting, if you divert down the existing natural drainage, you may initiate more erosion. The elevation difference between the "inlet" and the "outlet" and grade control and bank resistance (or lack thereof) will determine that outcome. Water in a confined channel will do more work/erosion than unconfined water.

The attached picture shows a diversion I created in response to high flows earlier this year. The ditch at the far downstream end by the road was so saturated it was "headcutting" the small channel back up the hill. Had I not diverted it and spread the water out, I'm pretty sure it would have eroded several feet down and probably about 100 feet back up the hill.

In any event, you may want to consider asking your local County Conservation District for assistance. They often deal with similar drainage issues and probably have considerable experience in your area. Good luck!

 

[44trxfun]

another try on the pic...