Broken dam!!

[Bear Charge]

Your "good news" is good news.

[BrandonA]

Build the dam higher and lower the spill away a foot or 2

[BrandonA]

One of the keys to the spill way is to make sure it is clear and clean. Speaking of which I need to do some clearing mine.

[Hix]

One of the keys to the spill way is to make sure it is clear and clean. Speaking of which I need to do some clearing mine.

That’s what got ours. Logs and stuff jammed it and it breached in the center


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[J Loves Huntin]

Sorry to hear that. Lots of hours go into maintaining ponds and dams
Good luck on the rebuild

[Rwc]

That’s what got ours. Logs and stuff jammed it and it breached in the center


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Your last photo of water running through the cut dam is incredible and painful all in one photo.


Rwc

[Kong]

We had equipment sitting beside a 16 acre lake waiting for it to dry up enough to fix their spillway problem he had been putting off for years. The dam failed on Saturday and he lost the entire lake and all the fish he had spent 16 years growing and adding to his overall expense tens of thousands of dollars to get it back where it was. The poor guy was in tears and I offered to do some extra work for free on the inflow side removing silt trying to help him out. He’s come to terms with it today and we’re going to add a lot of structure in it making it an even better fishing lake for his family so the best thing I can say in your situation is to turn a negative into a positive by taking the time to do it right this time and making it better than it was.

We’ve repaired and built hundreds of lakes over the years and the number one problem is the dam height compared to the spillway construction and the over site of lake builders not knowing or at least having the understanding of a worst case scenario of in flow.

I’m sure you have a grasp on it now but if you have any questions I’d be happy to offer any advice on it so feel free to pm me with any questions. Repairing a dam is as much art as it is anything else so if they just start packing it with clay your going to be in trouble again, their is a process to it so find someone that’s dealt with it a lot.

[Roman AB]

Would planting trees along the dam help hold the dirt in place in these situations?

[Kong]

Would planting trees along the dam help hold the dirt in place in these situations?

Worst thing you can do to a dam is let trees grow on it, they need to be clean and well maintained

[Roman AB]

Worst thing you can do to a dam is let trees grow on it, they need to be clean and well maintained

So the root systems wouldn't add any strength to the dam to hold it in place. I could see the spillway being clear and all but wouldn't tree roots help with erosion?

[Kong]

Root systems create cavities for the water to flow around weakening the dam. On smaller ponds it’s not a huge problem but on larger lakes above 4 acres it’s a nightmare scenario. Some survive decades like this but eventually they will fail from trees and roots rotting destroying the dam if they receive very much in flow. Water is always looking for a way to escape and it will always take the path of least resistance.

[Quackerbox]

The spillway was/is at the end of the dam and there was an emergency spillway at the other end as well. I do not believe the failure was the fault of the contractor. There were a couple of ponds in the same area that were decades old and they lost their dams as well. One of those being salmon lake Park built in the 60’s. 11 inches of rain in a few hours is going to cause flooding and I didn’t have the funds to build a Hoover type dam. Things happen and we just have to regroup and rebuild.

I heard about Salmon. Spent a lot of time up there as a kid.

[switchbackxt]

Back together. Waiting for it to fill and then restock the fish.

[okrattler]

You did a dam fine job.

[warrington]

Nice

You did a dam fine job.

Yepper