Thinking about next years projects -- Curtain Drain to fill pond

   / Thinking about next years projects -- Curtain Drain to fill pond #1  

catvet

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
254
Location
Hyde Park, Vermont
Tractor
Kubota L-39
I'm contemplating next years big projects. One of them is trying to get more inflow to our wildlife pond and possibly start developing a microhydro source. We have a large area of "seeps" up in the woods above our pond. This summer we tapped into one of the the runoff spots by building a small dam by hand and putting in 300 feet of standard garden hose. Crude but it got some water to the pond though not enough.

What I'm thinking of is digging a trench below the wet area, putting in some crushed stone and perforated pipe and running the flow I collect down to the pond. I figure there is about a 90 foot drop to the pond. In theory I could put a pond further down on the property and gain another 100 or so feet of elevation. What I hope to do is see how much runoff I can get and then decide whether to put the second pond in and extend the line. If there is adequate flow I would want to set up a microhydro installation at the lower pond.

I figure that the seep area is is about 150 feet wide and there are some places where there is some ongoing visible flow.

Now for the questions:

  1. Does this concept sound at all doable?
  2. The fact that the water is at the surface along this area I figure I won't need to dig real deep to collect the water but I do worry about it freezing in the winter. Our frost line is about 5 feet. If the water is constantly moving do you think I should dig down below the frost line before I place the pipe?
  3. I figure I need to put something impermable on the downhill side of the trench to stop the water from flowing further. Any ideas what to use? I look at pond liner but that seems awful expensive. Is there something else which would work? The area seems rather rocky and I'm not sure what sort of soils I'll be dealing with. Unfortunately there is a reasonable chance that I will hit ledge in the first couple of feet.
  4. I'm going to be taking the tractor between the trees to get up to the spot. Any good suggestions on how to get the crushed stone up there other than 1 bucket at a time?
Thanks for any ideas.
 

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