Offered another unusual project

   / Offered another unusual project #1  

Hay Dude

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3 miles from where the gun was discarded
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Have a long time customer. It's a large acreage HOA with several fields to be hayed and large grass areas to be mowed.
They also have 3 small ponds.
1 pond is spring fed. The spring has unexpectedly dried up. I dont know a lot about the life cycle of springs, so I don't know if they can also come back to life, but it's been on the decline for about a year.
The pond is down to 10-20% (best guess). Water is evaporating, so diminishing with each passing day. There is no other natural water source to replace it nearby. The property owners would like to keep the pond, but are not of unlimited wealth.

Here is the only 2 ways I can think of to replenish the pond:
1. Drill a well. But how much the well gives in GPH is anyone's guess. Very rough estimated cost is about $10,000.

2. The current building the owners live in is uphill from the pond, about 300-500' away in a PUD building of 6 condominium units. Only a small part of the building currently has gutters and downspouts. I was contemplating installing hundreds of feet of 5" gutter, with 3x4 down spouts on the building and running all the down spouts into a continuous rain water retention system. Rather than running the underground pipe into a typical large stone pit, instead run the water directly into the pond.
Realize there's no guarantee it'll rain enough to keep the pond full, but other than that, that's the only reasonable sources of water I can come up with. The roofs areas are pretty large. I suppose there's a roof water runoff calculator that can help calculate.
Another noteworthy point is the other ponds, about 1/4 mile away each, are also spring fed, but not low on water. So that tells me it's probably not a drought issue?

This is all in the "talking/ideas" phase. I have installed several rainwater retention systems, so this is nothing new for me from an installation perspective.
I just don't know if it's enough water?
Pond is triangular about 150' on each leg and averages about 4-5' deep.

Don't want to install something that won't work or lessen my reputation with customer. Another thing definitely worth mentioning is the customer also has some desire to have gutters and downspouts installed to get roof runoff away from the building, so there could be a 2-fer type of benefit in helping to keep water from damaging building foundations
1745597735257.jpeg
 
   / Offered another unusual project #3  
Could you offer to install the gutters, and route the runoff into the pond, with full disclosure to the owners that it may not refill the pond? They want gutters anyway.

If it doesn't refill the pond, they you can discuss adding a well later.

I would suggest you do a little more research on the gutter option. Calculate the area of the roof, and your average yearly rainfall, and the area of the pond to get an estimate of how much water you could expect to get into the pond from the gutters.
 
   / Offered another unusual project #4  
I knew someone who dug a pond that never held water because it was unknowingly dug over a sink hole that opened up a few years later. Point being it can be difficult to assess what is going on underneath.

Also see some trees growing in the pond basin…
 
   / Offered another unusual project
  • Thread Starter
#5  
   / Offered another unusual project
  • Thread Starter
#6  
I knew someone who dug a pond that never held water because it was unknowingly dug over a sink hole that opened up a few years later. Point being it can be difficult to assess what is going on underneath.
I did a walk around assessment and don't see any damp areas at the "breast" of the pond. No signs of leakage, but definitely a dried-up supply.
Additionally, the pond has been there for about 50 years (mid 70's man made pond)
 
   / Offered another unusual project #7  
Tempted to suggest looking at historic google map images to see if there was development nearby that changed the path of the spring.

Not my field of expertise, but if a spring source stops flowing into a pond, can it then act as a drain?
 
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   / Offered another unusual project
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Tempted to suggest looking at historic google map images to see if there was development nearby that changed the path of the spring.
No nothing. No mining, developing, ponds, etc.
 
   / Offered another unusual project #9  
Get an old Water Witch out there to see if the supply is still around but just rerouted, not going in the pond... that can be fun.
I hired one such old Indian guy when I needed a new well to show me where the water was, and he was right.
 
   / Offered another unusual project #10  

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