Building a Farm pond

[MIKE IN lINO III]

I'm interested in building a pond on my property up north. The main reason for the pond would be to collect water from the field and to dry out the wooded area that is below the field level. My property is 204' x 1650', hopefully with the help of the neighbor I would be able to to make at least a 225'x 400' pond.

I'm not exactly sure where to start. I've read on the internet that I can get the assistance of the county to design the pond, which is a large expense. Other than that I don't know where to begin.

Does anyone out there have experience building a pond?

It would be in Itasca county.

Thanks,

Mike

[Shane683]

Contact the local Soil and Water Conservation District/NRCS office first to check on wetland rules and regulations to make sure you will not be in violation.

[satnu]

I would also contact the DNR. They would be helpful.

[wastewaterguru]

Here is the contact information....

http://www.bwsr.state.mn.us/directories/WCA.pdf

The problem is that is sounds like you are draining a wetland to make a pond. You should start this project by contacting the person for your county responsible for wetland conservation from the contacts above. You may find that your project requires completion of an EAW (environmental assessment worksheet). You also effect your adjacent property owners who now would have to deal with stormwater management related to a surface water which is more stringent than a wetland.

You have a lot of questions to get answered if you want to do this by the book and I am no authority. Contact the DNR and MPCA and find out the types of hurdles you may have to climb. You may find out quickly that it isn't worth the cost or headaches.

Let us all know what you find out.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

The pond that I want to biuld is primarily to catch the storm water that comes off of the hayfield. The woods only holds water after a good rain. I think it would benefit the neighbor by retaining the stormwater from his woods also.

I did talk to one of the officials from the soil & water conservation dept yesterday. He knows the property that I am talking about and he thinks it is classified as a type 2 wetland. We are going to wait and see how the snow melts and affects the rest of the properties. He seems like he will work with me on the project, so we will wait till summer to go any further.

Mike

[hanson]

You might want to have a chat with some Civil engineers in your area also. On many of our architectural projects, storm water retention ponds are required by one of the jurisdictions. Civil usually designs these and sets the grades and necessary structures. This might be overboard for your pond but it would be another source of info.

[Fastlane]

I like the idea of more retained water!

But, you do have to consider a few things....

1) Existing Wetland- You cannont drain an existing wetland without replacing it(mitigation) and usually more than you took. This will need to be figured out. Try to get a hold of the information off the MnDNR data deli for known wetlands in your area. The info is free off the internet, but you need GIS software and some experience on how to use it. Ask that soil & water conservation contact person if they could get that info for you. Like he said though, you might have to wait until the growing season and then have the wetland delineated to find the boundarys of it, if there are any.

2) Soil conditions, it's kinda self explanatory. If the water table is too low and the soils are well draining(sandy), good luck holding water.

3) Size of your subwatershed, conditions very but the area draining into where you want your pond needs to have enough size. Size depends on soil conditions. For a 2 acre pond, you might need a minimum of 20 acres draining into it to hold water.

Stormwater retention ponds(as hanson refered to) usually serve two purposes. Rate control and quality control. Both quantities of these increase drastically with impervious serfaces. That is what hansen is refereing to, almost always in development work. I don't think your creating any impervious surfaces, so you are not changing existing conditions. These are a few things to consider. Talk to the right people. You don't want to damage an existing wetland and if you are going through all the work, you want to make sure it works.

Good Luck

[sirsunnyslayer]

Just remember, if the DNR and/or the soil conservation people don't like what you did they will have you reverse what was done. When they tell you that they mean like right now and you have to pay for that too. Just keep that in mind.