Siphon thrifty solution for pond drainage

Weekend & Opinion Page Editor

Using non-collapsible PVC pipe to drain a pond through the siphon method can be an efficient and very cost-effective first step in any pond renovation or expansion project, one that avoids levy damage and heavy equipment cost.

Pond owners planning to work on their impoundments later this summer have work to do much sooner if they hope for the dirt inside to dry. Thankfully, much of the primary draining can be accomplished without cutting the levy or incurring major expense.

A simple plastic pipe construction can save pond owners countless headaches and dollars when it comes to lowering water levels for work, for maintenance or just for routine management.

The standard siphon principle used on small scales for moving fuel or other liquids with the help of gravity can be applied to ponds in many cases without cutting through levees or investing in other expensive or irreversible measures. What is required is a situation that allows gravity to do the work.

“Usually you want at least two thirds of the pipe on the downhill side,” Greg Briggs, of Porterville, said. Briggs does land improvement work and is often called upon to renovate ponds.

First, these must be drained. Cutting the levee with the use of a backhoe is one simple way to get the water out, but it can be an expensive process.

If there’s a lot of water, the levee has to be breached gradually, lest the water flowing through cut its own channel too quickly and roar out, doing unnecessary damage to the levee itself. This means the backhoe operator has to make a small cut first, let the water down a level, then make more cuts later, hours of heavy equipment time that don’t come cheaply. Much of this can be avoided via siphon.

To set up the siphon, you’ll need at least one ball valve, a clean-out, several sections of non-collapsible pipe and some way to stop the water on the pond side while the pipe is being filled. The ball valve goes at the foot of the downhill run. The clean-out goes on top of the levee or at the highest point of the run. The pond end can be capped with another ball valve, a one-way valve or any other contrivance that can be quickly opened. If you use a spring-loaded one-way valve positioned to let water flow into the pipe but not out, you can operate the siphon single-handedly. Any other solution requires a second set of hands.

The pipes themselves can be joined with standard glued PVC fittings or with flexible rubber joints and hose clamps. Either method works well, but the rubber joints allow some flexibility to the system after it’s assembled and are easily removed later.

With the ball valve at the bottom of the run closed and the pond end stopped, open the clean-out and fill the pipe with water.

With the pipe filled, close the cleanout tightly. If you’ve used a one-way valve on the pond end, just open the ball valve at the bottom of the run and you’re draining water until you turn it off. Otherwise, both ends will need to be opened at the same time. Either way, this method is a simple, straight-forward drainage solution.

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Weekend & Opinion Page Editor