New Pond

[WCarlson]

Captain Bob,
My pond is fed from a small stream that I divert then feed overflow back into the stream bed. It was here when I bought the place so I don't know what permission, if any, the prior owner received. I did have to get a farm pond license from the DEC (NY State Dept of Environment and Conservation) in order to legally stock it with trout. If I were to do what you propose, I would check with the DEC and my Township Building Supervisor prior to moving dirt.
Bill

 

[Henro]

Hi,

If it were me I would not suggest to anyone I asked that I intended to divert the stream. Rather I would just mention that I wanted to build a pond and take a little water from the stream to slowly fill it.

This is what I would do if inded that were the case, and if it were not necessary to have the pond sit right on top of where the stream is flowing currently.

Actually, you can get a lot of water out of a 4" pipe...so maybe a pond independent of the stream might work for you anyway. And you could return the pond overflow back to the stream via another pipe...

Now if the pond has to sit on top of the stream...best advice has already been given. I would be upfront with the authorities and see what they say. Save a lot of potential headachs that way.

Captain Bob, Let us know how things go. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

In my former life as a California resident I learned the governments purpose is to create work for themselves to justify a larger budget. I also learned that they MUST make life difficult for anyone who aproaches them to do anything.

A very wise man tought me the way to deal with them is to avoid them. I never ever tell them anything.

The reason I tell you this is to offer an alternative that we came up with for ponds.

It was already there, just overgrown with vegitation and in need of cleaning up.

The difference is huge!

Good Luck,
Eddie

P.S. One of the reasons for moving to Texas is the ability to do what you want on your land and not have the government get involved. No permits needed outside city limits!

 

[rlk]

Captain Bob
When I built my pond last year, I had to get permits from the NC Dept of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers. I also had to contact someone within NC regarding a Dam Safety Permit (as long as the dam did not exceed 15 feet in height a permit from them was not needed). My local county did not need to issue a permit since I am on a farm.

The Army Corps of Engineers walked the area, and determined I had a whopping .06 acres of wetland. Fortunately they did not make me restore the wetland somewhere else - guess it was so small they didn't care. The NC Dept of Natural Resources also walked the area, took the same soil samples the Corp took, also determined there to be .06 acres of wetland. (I asked why they had to do the same thing the Corps did, and they said they could not take the Corps word - had to see for themselves - our tax dollars at work). The Corps charged me $150 for a permit. NC charged $400 for their permit. The Corps person helped me fill out all the paperwork and had their permit to me within a couple of weeks. The NC DNR refused to help with the paperwork, and took about 6 weeks to get the permit to me.

While we were building the pond, no one ever stoped to ask if I had a permit. Some DNR people came to my neighbors property next door to look at his timber. While cruising the timber, they asked him if I had a permit. He said he did not know. They never came to see me.

I probably could have gotten by with no permits, but aside from some frustrations working with the NC DNR, the process was not too bad, even though it was a little expensive.

Good luck with yours.
Bob

 

[gmason]

Bob, that's all very interesting, we built ours, in Chatham Co 4 summers ago(remember Floyd). I had the County Soil and Water people out and they are the ones that recomended the pond for some drainage issuses. I had a local guy dig it out and build the pond dam. No permits, never was told to get one, no one ever came a calling. The guy diggin it did say something about a 15' limit for a pond dam. I dug out a few places that would streach that.

Except for when Floyd hit before we where done and took about 6cy of soil from the dam, I think it's done alot to control runoff and to stablilize the creek levels downstream and into Cary's water supply. Wish I could say the same for a few of the ponds they've created for some of Western Cary's developments.

gary

 

[Henro]

Rlk,

<font color="blue"> While we were building the pond, no one ever stoped to ask if I had a permit. Some DNR people came to my neighbors property next door to look at his timber. While cruising the timber, they asked him if I had a permit. He said he did not know. They never came to see me.
</font>

For some reason this stuck in my head and a light bulb came on last night when I got tired of counting sheep...

You can almost bet that had you not had the permits they would have came knocking...probably a quick call to the office told them that you had the permit! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[mrcaptainbob]

That's exactly the way I'm looking at it. I'd like to keep a distance from the stream, actually. Maybe 20 feet or so. Since the stream is very heavily spring fed, I expect to run into several for the pond as well. The area is already soft. If it doesn't get supported by springs, then I'll divert some from the stream and load it back on the other side. Interesting, too, that this whole area is sand, rock and boulder. Yet, there's many ponds and lakes around. I'd really like to start this early next year. Need to get the tractor w/bh and fel soon. I'll check with some of the locals who've done their own to see how they handled it. Thanks for the counsel.