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I live in a town that has a sizable pond that is dammed with a concrete overfall spillway. Decades ago the state demanded that the dam be installed to guarantee that the surface height of the pond remain the same when a culvert was being built at the outfall of the pond.

This is a problem because the pond is slowly silting up, and as it silts up it is becoming larger and larger and shallower and shallower, basically it is slowly turning into a marsh which is infiltrating into people's backyards (not mine, but those of some neighbors).

How can this problem be solved?

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    $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's better suited for Engineering SE $\endgroup$
    – Spencer
    Nov 10, 2019 at 22:48
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with @Spencer, this is an engineering problem. To give a quick answer, all rivers transport silt & other sedimentary material. When a dam is placed across a river it becomes a barrier to the silt which then collects behind the dam. This is a problem with all dams, even the big hydro-electric dams; they all will eventually silt-up. Unless the dam has been built to allow periodic bottom flushes, so that some of the silt can escape the dam will either have to be allowed to silt up or it will have to be dredged & the silt relocated elsewhere. $\endgroup$
    – Fred
    Nov 11, 2019 at 3:31
  • $\begingroup$ I disagree and believe it is on topic. Siltation is an important area in environmental geology. The interactions and effects of human activity in the geosphere are very much on topic for geosciences $\endgroup$
    – haresfur
    Nov 11, 2019 at 21:41

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That is what lakes and ponds do , fill with silt. Serious earth moving equipment is needed to slow Mother Nature. Our community has recently removed some silt with draglines, bulldozers , trucks , etc. I don't know the cost but certainly significant . They concentrated on certain areas to facilitate flow as we have a dammed stream that made roughly a 300 and 100 acre lake and the costs of general silt removal would be overwhelming. On the upside , bushes on a new island have become a egret rookery,

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  • $\begingroup$ As you say, a silted up lake of this size could become a super nature reserve for marshland birds and other creatures. This is called making a virtue of necessity. But the one in the question is apparently becoming a nuisance to neighbours. Perhaps they should take up bird watching. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Walsby
    Nov 10, 2019 at 22:10
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Cut a notch into the dam so the water drains to the level you want. The marsh will shrink to a smaller size.

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Obviously removing the silt will increase the erosion along the banks of the pond(the neighbors will probably not like this).

It sounds to me like this pond is badly constructed if the erosion is eating away peoples property.

the best option might be to fill in the area and use it for something else,a park-playground or simply let it become a wetland with wildlife.

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    $\begingroup$ Its not erosion. Because of silt accumulation the pond is getting wider and shallower so it is encroaching on yards. The pond was not constructed, it is a natural watercourse. $\endgroup$
    – Tyler Durden
    Nov 11, 2019 at 13:12
  • $\begingroup$ @TylerDurden sorry i did think it was a manmade pond. $\endgroup$
    – trond hansen
    Nov 11, 2019 at 15:14

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