Pond overflow! What happens when it rains too much? FarmCraft101

The pond is overflowing after heavy rains. The 60 foot wide spillway is designed to allow excess water to flow around the dam without harm, and it does it's job nicely.
Link to pond construction vid: • Building a 4.5 acre fa...
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The pond collects water from 250 acres, which amounts to a LOT of water when it rains heavily. The spillway is 60 feet wide, and it has about 3 inches of water on it in this video. I have seen it as high as 6 inches in the past.
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[@FarmCraft101]

I have a patron exclusive video showing the pond when the water level is normal, with water flowing through the pipe. Support me at Patreon.com/farmcraft101 to see it, and other Patreon exclusive content. Thanks for watching!

[@johnortmann3098]

You might think about letting the grass on the dam and in the spillway grow up some so it produces a larger, deeper and more stabilizing root system. The roots and shoots are pretty much proportional. Little shoots, little roots. Like your shooting range!

[@blitzburghbilly7813]

AND JUST THINK 🤔 2MARO WHEN THE SUN 🌕 COMES BACK OUT. IT WILL BE BACK UP IN THE SKY. UNTIL THE NXT RAIN FALL 🌧️🌧️🌧️ .....

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

Actually your spill way would benefit from sedges and willows. Other upland species do not produce the root mass sufficient to prevent flood event erosion. Wetting your spill way during the dry season allows these species to thrive and virtually "cement" your spillway. The lower section of the spillway does look vulnerable to erosion due to the bed angle.

[@JohnnyG2573]

I started watching some of your older content and it’s just as good as your new stuff! Great work Jon

[@trulyinfamous]

I love water flow, like rivers and creeks. I've always built little dams in the creeks in my woods when I was a kid. I still do.

[@mrheat8600]

Same thing I love water.

[@mathewceler4317]

One time in february when all the snkw was melting, there was a small stream of water coming from the underground high in the hill in middle of the woods. I was there to look at it and i had idea to make a small dam, i created about 4 dams and only one dam didnt collapsed to this day, and other 3 were the unstable once, i created a very large a high dam only with rocks, mud small rock, granite etc. To build the biggest dam, it was about half and quarter deep which it was in not very steep hill, it was about 436 gallons of water (yes i calculated that) and it fell down and created masive flood which the cannal system was overflowing even more and it went in every dirrection it can, there was a tree in the middle of the creek which was like 20 meters from the Biggest dam and the tree fell on to make another route for the dam and it went to a house which there house was flooded like 1 inch and other houses too, it went all the way to the river which there was tunnel that was going to flow to the river, bjt the water collected so much stuff that it dammed the tunnel and firefighters were called to undamed that and nobody k ow hoe and ehy there was alot of water flowi g from that creek, and the authoritis found out that there were 4 creek build and were trying to find the human that did it, they gave up and now it was because of me. 😂😂😂🇸🇰 and the fine was about 200 dollars in damages which the city paid😂😂😂😂. LOL

[@ctdieselnut]

Me too. That probably is some inherent fascination that could be traced back to ancient ancestral life. Those who learned how to successfully manage water, lived long enough to procreate. Those who didn't, died off. We've been naturally selected to take an interest in water lol. Same can probably be said for fire/cooking/building. Interesting thought. Not saying its 100% true, but at least sounds plausible to me. Sometimes thinking in these terms explains behavior or it's commonality that'd otherwise be completely mysterious. In my town, there used to be a park alongside a dam that had a wooden trough water was diverted through. It had removable wood gates and stuff made for kids to play with. It was next to a old mill turned into a museum, sort of an educational place, centered around water power/old industry. (Eli whitney museum, he was the inventor of the cotton gin.) I loved that place as a kid, it was always packed all summer. Apparently kids wanting to dam up water (and those kids growing up to click on this video) is a widespread phenomenon. I guess we are all part beaver at heart. Lmao

[@mase4287]

I love how everyone is an environmentalist and commented on how much energy you've wasted. Let's put in a power station for something that may only over flow once a year

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

You don't expect them to be rational thinkers, do you? ;)

[@PleasantlyConfused6816]

Or let him do what he wants!!

[@BuildswithBrian]

That’s more like a small lake than a pond 😁 Thanks for posting, that was cool and impressive

[@Charles-pu1tx]

Nice pond on the farm, beautiful place. Some mobile burgers looking good. Might even be able to drink a milk shake with that burger. Great videos, thanks for all of your efforts. I would lived to have grown up on a place like that.

[@andreag490]

The math at the end was my favorite part. I learned so much from this video. This is all so interesting. Thank you!

[@jamesbond9873]

Great video. Love the 🐄 cows walking up.

[@andreaberryman5354]

I was looking for simple garden pond overflow and got RANCH pond overflow in amazing detail-thank you-AMAZING JOB handling drainage! Bravo!👏👏💗

[@carolewarner101]

Wow, you could make one hell of a lot of power with all that flow if you hooked up a turbine to the end of that pipe! Seems like the rainy season could pick up the slack in your solar system during winter? Really enjoy the fact that you actually do the math and explain calculations in detail. Thank you!

[@FarmCraft101]

Agree. I've considered, and continue to consider doing a hydro power system. Problem is, it is quite a distance that I have to run the power, and with the expense of the wire, the turbine, and the fact that I only have about 14' of drop, it is hardly worth it financially. But would be a fun project no doubt! Maybe one day!

[@carolewarner101]

You don't need much head with that kind of flow! You would only get power during major rain events, but at 10,000 gpm you don't even need drop! I guess finances would be the determining factor though as I think microhydro systems are sized for what the flow is 75% of the time, not for major rain events... Anyway, I'll keep an eye out to find out whether you ever act on it!

[@FarmCraft101]

Last time I priced the power head, there wasn't anything good for such low pressure that could actually use such a high flow. In other words, there are small microhydro turbines that work with low pressure, but only use around 50gpm to make a few hundred watts of power. Instead I've been tempted to build an old fashioned water wheel, but it's such a huge project. Will be awhile before I'd have time for something like that. Love the idea though. You've got me thinking about it again! ;-)

[@carolewarner101]

Sounds like an exciting project to ponder!

[@danielrose1392]

Have you ever estimated how many days of the year your discharge pipe is actually at full capacity? Only during that time, you would have a good energy harvest. The only reasonable option I see for such ponds and power production is to have two discharge pipes. A large one with a higher inlet to discharge excess water and a smaller one with a lower inlet to harvest the energy. With the lower diameter and lower inlet, you could get much more operating hours out of a smaller turbine, but you would loose storage capacity.

[@seriouslyreally5413]

there are a lot of pond digging videos out there with no schematics of the pond construction and water source and no "after" shots of what the pond looks like after filling and settling out- until now! thanks for your two videos they were so helpful!

[@Redjimon]

Here's one for you. All the great lakes were at record lows 5 years ago. 1 to 2 meters below normal. Today 2017 they are flooded. Imagine the amounts there.

[@rogermacdonald9126]

That’s very interesting and your good at math for sure ……I sure enjoy all your videos !😊

[@Locane256]

😲 that's a LOT of water! Thanks for the math breakdown!

[@CliffsideStables]

Great ending with those fantastic statistics! I may need to study my little one acre pond a little more.

[@Turkrypty]

That was the best practical math ive seen in a while. its hard to wrap my head around a figure so large as 10 million gallons

[@KenFullman]

But allowing all that water to simply run away down the creek is such a waste. He should put it in a bucket, so once the water level in the pond drops, he'll be able to use the bucket to top up the pond.

[@gordonmccoy4537]

Nice "OR" Rain cover... I've 3 of them, 1Dark Green and 2 Blue w/Black brim.... Best weather cover I've ever bought...

[@BlindSymmetryLurePainting]

Love the numbers breakdown 👍

[@tombauer7330]

Jon, that was AWESOME! Love it when you do brainiac application to real life. Cows? You really do have a farm...

[@user-gy8bo4mr9s]

برافوو احسنت سعيد لانجازك هذا بالتوفيق دائما

[@christopherwaldrop8115]

I appreciate intelligent observations. Thank you.

[@FrederickDunn]

Such an excellent video!!! Thanks for sharing!

[@crtomirrozman]

Loved this video. Very educational.

[@lordieshepherd]

You made a very interesting video. Thanks. Most enjoyable

[@Regie57]

Great job on pond, great video about the pond.

[@pussinboots1145]

Those figures are amazing xx

[@pear222]

I can't help but notice how much easier calculation would have been in metric units. Water level rise = 21 inches ~= 0.53m Pond size = 4.5 acres ~= 18210m^2 Total volume rise = 0.53x18210 = 9651.3m^3 1m^3 equals exactly 1000 liters, so that would be 9,651,300 liters. 1 liter of water equals exactly 1kg as well, which is again a thousandth of a metric ton, so that would be exactly 9651.3 metric tons of water. (1m^3 of water equals exactly 1 metric ton) Meanwhile, 1 inch acre is 27154.285714286 gallons. 1 gallons is 8.34 lbs. Food for thought. But anyways, thank you so much for an amazing video.

[@FarmCraft101]

I agree. I like the metric system too. Now if we can just convince about 300 million more people...

[@pear222]

@@FarmCraft101 ahaha, oh well, you are right. Anyways, seriously, thank you so much for vids you put up. Sorry for sounding like an annoying fanboy but I really do enjoy them a lot hahaha

[@arfonryan-jones74]

great video mate

[@briananderson7497]

When you consider the added weight from your pond, you can understand why there is hesitancy to build dams in California with the fault lines there. When they built a dam in the 60's that ended up causing a decent size earthquake from all the extra weight added to the fault line. It's amazing how much weight is found in water.

[@davidcperron]

Love this.

[@dragonforge3335]

Grate vídeo, i like the final conclution.

[@davethompson6570]

That is amazing and really helpful math, Impressive. Thanks!

[@K3PO]

Very awesome to think about! That is mind boggling to think all that water was floating in the sky and then dumped down in just 12 hours. That’s just the amount in that one pond too. Think about the weight of water in an entire storm cell!!

[@northtexasskies3243]

That spillway is cool i thought id never say that but there is something about it. Its like a waterfall

[@yota87truck]

Those last few remarks. 🤯

[@tomredmond]

That really looks like one of the ponds that Chris, (letsdig18) built. Real familiar looking. But yes, that be a lot of water......

[@danielrobinson1868]

As we say in Belgium : "Water is powerful stuff, it carries boats."

[@eschel2155]

Never hird that here in the netherlands, but im going to remember your saying. I like it.

[@logoseven3365]

In the Netherlands your ground WAS under water

[@AxecutionerMovieclips]

LogoSeven good one :)

[@lodhi8972]

Hahaha that’s hilarious and awesome

[@mplewp]

never ever heard that :P And i work in the port of freaking Antwerp ^^

[@MrKfq269]

Great vid.

[@swotteh]

Thanks for the video but, big thanks for the diagram and calculations.

[@Ivar_Mennes_]

you could get power from that pipe.

[@johnpelham9310]

Ivar Mennes yes you can,but don't tell the government.

[@markbarone3147]

By eye I would say there is enough power for 20 homes. I would check it out.

[@danielrose1392]

It is probably only a few days a year you really could harvest energy. I mean, why is he building that pond? I am sure not because he has a steady water supply running through his backyard.

[@picobyte]

@@markbarone3147 the pond is small for buffering. One home.. because it needs to last during droughts..

[@johnmike7809]

I have a similar set up. I have looked into hydroelectric electric power. I am open to your suggestions.

[@brownwarrior6867]

As we say in Scotland “It’s pure pishin it doon ” I have probably absorbed 10 billion gallons via my skin as a result of horizontal rain in my life time living and growing up in Bonnie Scotland. Cool vid nice coos (cows)

[@NightyNite94]

That's nice property

[@TheNightwalker247]

maeby you could build some spill swales to seep in more of that sweet water before it completly overflows into the creek

[@yellow2000SR]

Ever think of putting a grid over the top of the drain pipe inlet to break the vortex?

[@MsGroovalicious]

I did enjoy the video, Thank you. Is there a formula on how to build farm ponds? Would you recommend any books or websites? Thank you!

[@jamesa5720]

I bet the fishing, at your expense, is good in the creek below your spillway, ha.

[@johnshowler2543]

that's impressive. the 12" pipe though is way undersized for that size of inflow. that's not much freeboard there!

[@josedelacuadra660]

I am in awe with your 4.5 acre man-made pond and drawing water from a nearby stream. I have a stream I property and I would like to do the same - build a pond But don’t I need a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers before I can start with the project since I would be drawing water from the creek, in addition to collected rainwater our time? This episode was very educational.

[@FarmCraft101]

Depends. I did get a permit before building, but it wasn't a big deal because the creek is small, not named, and joins another before leaving my property so the project had essentially no impact on anybody else. Also, because the max height of my dam was less than 17 feet that made the whole permit much cheaper and easier to get.

[@blahfasel2000]

36000t isn't even that much. An average cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) cloud holds around 5 MILLION tons of water, and that's just the condensed liquid (or frozen) water droplets in the cloud, not even the water vapor in the athmosphere. It's only about 1-2g per m^3, but with a diameter of 24km on average and a height of 8-10km, that adds up. When we had a day with moderately heavy rainfall all throughout Germany last year, out of curiosity I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation, which came out to more than a billion (with a B) tons of water that came down over Germany that day.

[@berniestephens4506]

That math bit was cool 👍🏻

[@Don.Challenger]

What is the size of the creek watershed flowing into the pond that also goes through your pond - so there is probably a bit more than the 4.5 acres through the creek, the discharge pipe and over the spillway. Also does all your farm shed to the creek and pond or is some of it flowing down and away elsewhere? Very interesting video shown here. Thanks.

[@Don.Challenger]

Whoops, just read your video discription so some of the answer is found there already.

[@ScottishNSRailFan]

Where is your hydro system? Powerful water flow.

[@felix1185]

Like this one!

[@SandyShoresProjects]

That’s some serious food for thought.

[@charlesrenniemacki]

Interesting - thanks for sharing. What is the purpose of the pond (reservoir) and why was the dam built in the first place? Do you use it for land irrigation on your farm or does it supply clean water to your farm house? If so what sort of water treatment facilities do you have. Wish I could stop by and have you show me around but I'm in England.

[@FarmCraft101]

It's for irrigation in the summer droughts. Thanks for watching!

[@superwiseman452]

I would have place at least 4 of those 12 inch overflow pipe. That would have reduced risks with your spillway.

[@mrt5187]

I was thinking the same thing .. The vertical pipes can be stager in Hight, as the pond rises it will Engauge each overflow.

[@IncredulousIndividual]

that looks fun did you have fish in that pond?

[@DC_DC_DC_DC]

Man I wish I lived next to/owned a creek

[@MrKfq269]

All floating above your head and more. Much, much more. If you measure the area the storm system covered and the hourly rate of rainfall, the number of gallons and the weight per gallon, the numbers are staggering. And thats only for your particular rain event.

[@FarmCraft101]

Very true. It's amazing how much weight is hanging up over our heads. Thanks for watching!

[@sighpocket5]

Nice!!!! ( love the math )

[@stephenpowstinger733]

Hydraulics has always fascinated me. If some want to see power captured here we have to ask how regular the overflows are and what kind of equipment and installation is needed for a hydro-electric setup. Probably not practical.

[@grahamheath3799]

Interesting figures; makes my stream look minuscule. .

[@balyqosiru8309]

Super!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Flowing23]

Big numbers, any concerns about the berm.

[@PresidentialOGkush]

Low-key look like Walter White.

[@vic5seven]

holy cow... that math blew my mind!

[@virgilfisher1869]

Looks like you should build a micro hydro damn.

[@gardenman3]

I do not know anything about pond building. i would think that if you had made the outlet pipe twice the size you would have much less problem with the water going over the spill way. What do you do if you ever want to drain the pond?

[@tru3fr0stb1te4]

You get a big ass fucking pump and find a spot to pump it

[@noncched6839]

n Nice video, that's alot of water and it's really amazing it can rise that fast. Do you have a creek feeding the pond? Where you located?

[@FarmCraft101]

Yes, a small creek usually, but it gets big in heavy rains. I'm on the east coast, USA. Thanks for watching.

[@Sugarsail1]

the permits you would need to even ask about putting a pond on your property in California would be staggering. This could never happen.

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

@@Sugarsail1 as long as you have water rights, you can have a lake or pond. The problem here would be trying to build a pond in a stream bed. That is rarely doable these days.

[@rjb6327]

Now I have to pee.

[@Diyman43]

Learn something new everyday

[@josephking6515]

Your 1" per acre water measurement was really quite interesting and I'm am serious in case one thinks the following metric info is me hanging 💩on your _Freedom Units._ I like trivia information like that. 👍 Metric makes it even easier and to make it really simple to demonstrate, 1mm of water over 1 square metre is 1 litre in volume (1 cubic metre equals 1,000 litres which is 1,000kg. I do so like metric. Makes doing calculations real easy unless one is totally useless at math like me. I just remember the 1mm over 1sq/mt = 1 litre for some reason. Have you ever used your lake (sorry but it looks way to big to be called a pond and does your lake have a name?) for SCUBA diving? That would be a kinda cool thing to do during the warmer time of the year.

[@BloodnGutz43]

Can you fit a water turbine in to the outflow pipe to generate power ?

[@roadgear4047]

I live on a small private lake, we recently received around 14-17 inches of rain in 48 hours, I’ve never seen so much water going over our spillway! I was fearful we may lose our lake! We have a fish fence that is installed to about 18” higher than the top of the spillway, my question is could this fish fence impede the flow during an extreme rain event enough to put to much pressure on the dam? To put it another way, did the people who designed our dam and spillway take into account a home made fish fence installed on top of the spillway?

[@davidhughes3051]

Interesting 🤔 thanx

[@MrTotalAhole]

Question. Is the deepest part 12 feet, or there abouts? If so any reason why you didnt want it deeper? Not at the dam end of course. Why I ask is that Ive been told that if you have a deeper section, around 20 feet or so, the pond will develop a thermocline layer that fish can retreat to when the water temperature gets overly warm. Its supposed to help keep the fish and the pond healthier.

[@FarmCraft101]

That's correct, 12-14 feet. You definitely wouldn't want it deeper near the dam because you get higher PSI of water pressure which makes the dam more apt to leak. As for digging a deeper section it's not necessary where I live. The pond definitely forms a thermocline as it is, and in my area it never gets hot deep in the pond. In the middle of summer if you dive to the bottom it is very cold, uncomfortably so. And in the winter it would never freeze.

[@MrTotalAhole]

Yeah it looked like on your video you were in the northern or near northern part of the country. When I lived in the South I came across plenty of shallow algae/scum ponds that were only six foot or so deep. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Really enjoyed your making the pond video too. Glad to see you didnt have a wash out.

[@emmalynwarkentin9976]

I'm curious. If you planted trees with deep penetrating roots around your dam, would the roots as they grow increase the strength of your dam by acting like rebar to reinforce it and hold it tightly together? A noob question I know but I am just curious since I have a smaller but similar pond at my farm and it is surrounded by trees (which beavers are removing at an alarming rate).

[@FarmCraft101]

Curt-Emma Warkentin I have read that trees on a dam are bad because the roots penetrate and make channels for water to leak through. Most people keep their dams mowed regularly because of this. I've never actually seen a dam fail because of tree roots though. It's possible that this practice is just theoretical nonsense. Thanks for watching.

[@1586ian]

Curt-Emma Warkentin trees cause leaks, stick with grass

[@markheintz1878]

Tree roots have a good and bad effect. The good is that they hold soil in the root ball area or base of the trees. The bad is that they also create passages that water can follow and eventually open a path creating leaks and failures. I lost a pond a few years ago due to this effect and having sandy soils.

[@robinenbernhard]

Cute cows :D

[@johnm.evangelis693]

How large is the pond? FC101

[@davidthompson4683]

You should really hook up a hydro turbine to your over flow pipe and create electricity to run your house and much more.

[@mrpush2532]

Whats size is the watershed serving your pond?

[@joemc111]

Liken All the numbers.

[@Peter7Paul]

Did you have to do any repair work on your spillway after this?

[@FarmCraft101]

No. It has flooded many times without issue. Because it's virgin ground it is not susceptible to erosion like the dam is.

[@Maloy7800]

Well, if you want impressive numbers, here is one. Even when all that water is flying over your head, the weight of the air that's pressing down on you right this moment is ONE TON.

[@RailPreserver2K]

You should build a hydropowrt plant for your house the water flow is perfect for it

[@FarmCraft101]

It is after a good rain, but most of the time it's just a trickle. I priced it a few years ago and it wasn't going to make financial sense then. The idea remains on my very long list of projects though. Would definitely be fun!

[@RailPreserver2K]

FarmCraft101 I hope that it works btw I just subscribed

[@thelastengineer2315]

I’m getting me a Hard hat next time I sees a cloud

[@andydickey]

250 acres times 1 inch of rain is roughly 650,000 gallons. You would need about an inch and a half of rain in a 12 hour period to get your 10,000,000 gallons - but then you probably have some springs and natural flow that adds to the normal runoff. Yeah - close enough for back of the envelope work.

[@luisvillalobos6517]

Watch the explanation again.

[@davidriley8590]

HOW do you sleep at night with all them raindrops floating about in your mind

[@jeremyatkinson4976]

I'd say with hindsight that you should have put in a bigger pipe. No point doing hydro, not enough drop and I bet that creek hardly flows most of the year

[@trainships1795]

T00 Bad you didn't build a Turbine Generation into your intake system before discharge into the creek. Just think how much power you could be producing with the solar panels down due to darkness and rainy days .

[@richardbyus9183]

You shud have 24- 30" pond discharge pipe at min.

[@scottbaican9566]

U need a 36” culvert pipe for that overflow

[@mrpush2855]

Wow...how many acres of water shed feed your pond?

[@FarmCraft101]

About 250 acres.

[@DavidScobie]

Is the pond stocked with fish

[@tellmesomething2go]

Say hi to Bessy there, will ya?

[@dennisthemenance5433]

aND wHAT, IF ANY Changes will you plan on doing when this Settles? another 12" Pipe or dig that one up and replace with a 24" Line? Forget hydro Power, That will take yrs to just Break Even...( They forgot about that part I bet) I'll bet their are InExpensive Solutions.

[@michalcackowski9814]

U need a 1 m wide pipe crazy global times any floods in the regions? no 12 inches rain fallout surface can be greater than the pound

[@arturasnesakysiu1684]

eventually water will brake damn its in its nature to do it

[@Someone-zx7xd]

How many acres is this pond?

[@LESPAUL44mag]

How deep is your pond at normal water level?

[@FarmCraft101]

14 feet at the deepest part.