Pond inlet: How to filter out silt / muck ?

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

In the area above my first driveway culvert I believe I can create the 'pre-pond' to slow the flow from the springs to the pond. Since I have a backhoe and a specially made bucket teeth cover to allow for scraping out areas like ditches and such, it should be fairly easy to create the pre-pond and get some grass growing on it's banks to help filter silt.

If this settling pond is filling with muddy water it will silt up quickly and have to be dredged--a task I personally don't want to have to do every year. So you'll have to do both: eliminate or lessen the erosion so there's less mud going through your system; and slow the flow, so the water doesn't have enough volume and speed to scour out your grass/rocks or make new paths. Also your freshly dug pre-pond will itself be a source of huge amounts of mud. So time your digging for a dry spell and plant the whole thing quickly with rye grass right away. A lot of people use straw or hay to cover freshly dug earth, but I find it washes away and clogs all your pipes.

Since our property is basically the entire side of a mountain, and a good bit of that is driveway/open lawn, it's one long slalom ride for the rainwater, all the way down ultimately to our ponds. The erosion was incredible! We have created many small solutions all the way down to deal with the problem; diverting the water in different directions (into the woods where possible) by changing the slope of the driveway a couple times, creating shallow ditches taking some of the water in one direction, a couple speed bumps to divert the water again, etc., etc. None of this seems to require any regular maintenance except blowing the autumn leaves out of the ditch once a year.

Curious; on my main homestead next door to small pond of this thread, I have a much bigger pond, also spring fed. Back in the woods a few hundred feet from the big pond is a vertical cylinder of concrete about 3' round with a concrete cap and a run of around 2" black plastic pipe that runs to the pond at stream bed level. Water flow through the pipe and was at one time held above the pond surface by a wood cross brace. The brace allowed the water in the pipe to drop onto the pond and give it aeration. I suppose this was the purpose of the concrete cylinder in the woods?
Maybe this is a similar method to what GWWTractor was referring to? What would it be referred to as... a cistern?

Sounds like an old spring well. We have one too, set right beside the spring creek; it used to supply all the water for the house. Ours is only a couple feet deep but has a constant flow year 'round. The pipe is for overflow. We have a new well for the house so all the water now flows out the overflow pipe into the creek.

Oh, and if your pond is cold and shaded and you're still getting a lot of vegetation growth, could fertilizer be washing into your system?

Can I get some pics of any of your existing setups? Thanks.

BTW, GWWTractor, did you get a tractor yet?

Will try to get some pics. Still tractor shopping.

 

[EddieWalker]

The simplest way that I know of is to dig a pit before a culvert that the water runs through before going into the pond. This will slow the water down and allow a percentage of the silt to settle to the bottom of the pit. It works really good, but you have to keep up with digging it out all the time. I had one on two culverts that most of the water goes through to get into my pond. For the first couple years, I was pretty good at digging it out once it got full. Then as the grass grew in and the water quality improved, I lost interest in digging it out. It's been a few years now and while I'm sure there is still plenty of silt getting into my pond, I haven't messed with it at all.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

Sounds like you need to slow the water down and/or give it a bed that doesn't erode. Combination of what GWWT and Dave suggested... grass and rocks. Can you make a mini 'wetland' area above the one culvert? Make a wide area and you could plant something like Tall Fescue which is tolerant of poor drainage and would help slow the water and let silt drop out. Stone can be used to 'armor' other parts of the ditch to stop erosion. Another option might be to 'step' the water down by having fairly level ditches that then drop over a concrete/stone waterfall type feature where erosion is avoided because the water is landing on stone or concrete. All depends on the layout of the land and materials on hand or affordable enough to purchase.