Can anyone help us? My husband and I have a 6 acer pond and we allowed tree trimers to come along our levee, they accidently ran over a large valve that the previous owners had installed through the levee. Well needless to say they ran over the valve and damaged the 8 inch pipe that went through the levee. The pond is leaking very fast and they have tried a lot of things to stop the flow of water so they could build a new levee but with no sucess. Can anyone give us imformation or suggestions on how to make repairs without tearing down the levee and dumping all the water which will kill all our fish. Thanks for any advice or information that any of you can give us!
Welcome to the Forums lindalou! Forum rules are you need 3 posts in order to start your own thread in order to keep the spammers out. Obviously you're not a spammer so I moved your first post to it's own thread so you can get the information you need. Our members are a wealth of knowledge. Good luck with fixing your problem!
Welcome to the forums as cm already mentioned... Without seeing it, advise isnt worth much. You will need to make three posts to be able to post a picture of your problem. That being siad the first thing you need to do is stop the flow of water thru the damaged pipe. Determine what kind of pipe it is and cap it or insert an expandable plug. If that doesnt work your going to need to lower the water level below the inlet for the damaged pipe. You can do this via a large engine drive water pump or you can create a siphon using a check valve, a ball valve a "t" and some pipe. If none of that works, contact a local company who does sewer and water line rehabitalization. They may be able to line the damaged pipe with a special liner. hope this helped.
Yair . . . lindalou. That was bad luck. Is the water actualy coming out of the damaged pipe? If so it is usualy difficult to improve the situation by trying to block break. You will need to determine where the inlet is and get some sort of stopper in there. While the water is flowing it won't take much as things tend to 'suck in' and even something like a big wadge of rags will do a lot to staunch the flow. Depending on the depth and situation you may need a diver Once the flow is steadied down a bit you may then be able to carefully dig around the pipe and valve and decide on how to do a permanent repair. This will determined by the nature of the damage and the type of pipe. There are lot's of folks on here more knowlegable than me when it comes to these situations and if possible some pictures or a description of the pipe, the type of valve, its connections and the actual purpose of the pipe would help them to help you. Hang in there and best of luck. PS stumpjumper beat me to it. Cheers,
With the lack of info the most we can do is take a guess. Over all if the levee is in good shape and will support the water then why not get some heavy duty plastic put a few layers down over the levee and the pipe. Something like 20' by 20' should work. Getting something over the sharp items like the pipe would help the plastic from ripping and an old rug or carpet would work. The carpet will also help to keep the plastic from getting sucked through the pipe. When I was on the fire department we would make a dam from a pike poll, 2 shovels, some rope, and a tarp to clog up a stream to the point we could draft from it. Hydraulic cement sometimes called water stop might be something worth using to clog up the pipe once the flow slows down for the plastic. You could call the local hazmat contractors and could put someone in the water and plug the pipe. Some of them do work in sewage plants getting into the water to fix stuff so your pound would no be so bad.
Is this a riser style drain pipe...think L shaped...or is it just a single pipe on a grade with a valve placed inline??? If it was installed after the actual dam construction I would guess it is NOT very deep from the top and could be dug out and replaced. Regardless the only right way to do this is to get the water level below that valve so you can have it dry to work on. Pictures would greatly help in aiding you with your issue. Another good way to make sure the earth around your pipe seals back up is to mix the clay with bentonite. Trbo
Hello lindalou, Sorry to hear of your troubles and welcome to HEF. As was mentioned earlier it is hard to determine the true extent of the problem and suggest a fix without photos. However, if you have access to the pipes inlet you can stop the flow with rags and quite a few of them. The problem with this solution is you may never get them out. If you have an Underground Utility or Drainage Contractor in your area you should call them ASAP and explain your situation, they have a device called a "ball" which is used to clean out sewer lines, it is inflatable and has a chain attached so it can be removed. Again, not knowing what kind of pipe, fittings or valve you have makes it difficult to truly help but it is imperative to stop the water as quickly as possible for two very important reasons; One, the obvious you're losing water. Two, if the leak is in the "core" of the levee you could very well be heading towards "hydraulic piping" a condition where water pressure could damage the levee by undermining the pipe and cause its collapse, this would mean the loss of all water and very quickly at that. You could possibly help whoever you call with some valuable information, generally there are two types of pipe used one is called ductile-iron which is black and will usually show signs of rust if in place for some time, the second is C900 PVC which can be white, green, blue or purple. Ductile iron is extremely brittle and serious damage may have resulted which could cost quite a bit to repair, C900 is far less brittle and repairs can be performed much easier and at a lower cost. Since 8" pipe is very common any contractor should have the necessary parts to effect a quick repair although they won't know what to bring if they aren't advised beforehand. I certainly hope when you read these replies you still have water and an intact levee as well I hope the tree trimming contractor has adequate general liability insurance to cover the damages. Good luck...
I have my own fish ponds, so will add this perspective Fish ponds do need draining & maintenance every now & then - it depends whats in your pond - and feeding techniques are.. The draining of a pond allows for a clean out of mud (nitrogen from feces - over feeding etc) and a clean out of predators ie larger species of aggressive fish which don't taste as good as the farmed species... Also intake & outlet drain maintenance .. However its usually a big undertaking.. On the subject of leaking outlet - I'm in the same boat as every one else with no visualization of the damage. But I would be putting the appropriate length of L shape PVC over the INLET of the leaking outlet pipe (90deg bend up to surface) The length of upright pipe would then determine the level of your pond and stop any leaking up to that level. I am assuming the outlet valve is mid levy & incapacitated with the water leaking at this point - I would be worried about the integrity of the levy - One way to fix the leaking area is to lower a large dia concrete pipe (1-1.5m dia) ? over the affected area and seal around the outside therefore confining the leak to the inside of the concrete pipe ie you have raised the levy around the valve - With this method you would need to either reinstate a valve further along the outlet (down stream) or apply the 90deg bend at the inlet . Good luck
Lindalou, the easiest way to make it to a junior member and be able to post pics is just make two posts to this thread. The posts don't have to have anything more than a couple of words, we'll even forgive you if it's gibberish. After your 3 posts, take a look at this thread of how to post pictures -
Don't understand? You said they tried a lot of things to stop the flow of water so they could build a new levee. If they stopped the flow of water wouldn't the old levee be fixed?
I would think they would put the new levee down stream form the old one. They need to stop the flow so they can work without flowing water. Depending on whats wrong with the pipe it would have to be replaced so you would have to drain the water below the pipe level. The fill could case a weak spot in the levee.
I would suggest once repairs are complete that (2) 8" gate valves be installed one on the intake side and one on the discharge side. This situation shouldn't happen again with redundant valving. My biggest concern is the hydraulic piping that occurs once water finds its way into an earthen dam or levee. Once there it is only a matter of time before the levee gives way. We have been dealing with this same problem on the Herbert Hoover Dike which surrounds Lake Okeechobee for years, finally the US Army Corps of Engineers is fixing it.