surface water drainage problems!!

[antz]

Bet there are alot of you out there with a similar problem due to the great weather we are having!

In our new garden we have a "Dew" pond?? I dont know what a dew pond is but reading on the tinernet it seems they are ponds that were dug by farmers to reduce land flooding????

Any how this pond dries up in the summer but in winter it floods the whole garden! the pond is about 8 foot deep and it must flood the garden by about 1-2 foot!!

its on a diffrent level from our house so thats not an issue!

Does anyone know where i would stand trying to get the drain for this unblocked?

There is a large manhole cover about 1 foot of our boundary fence and i have rodded the drain for about 15 foot so it clear well off our garden. Who should i contact to further the matter, whos responsibitly is it? where could i get plans of the drains?

any info would help!

cheers

[N. Thornton]

are you sure, cos theyre very unusual? Theyre a method of condensing water from the atmosphere to give a water supply.

ISTR you need to have a clump of grass growing in it to stop it drying out so it keeps working.

with no info from you on it?

You might want to google dew pond and see if its really what youve got.

Regards, NT

[nightjar]

They were ponds that were filled by condensation, to provide water supplies for livestock in areas without surface water. They are generally found in high chalk country, where cloud and mist form in sufficient quantity to keep the pond filled.

The main feature of dew ponds is that they don't dry up in the summer, when other water sources do. This sound more like a change in the level of the water table.

There probably isn't one to be unblocked.

Your local Water Authority will usually be the people responsible for land drainage. However, if it is a rise in the water table level, you won't get rid of the problem simply by making an opening into a drain. You will need to raise the land above the water level. I had a similar problem in my garden, but that only needed to be raised a few inches to be above the winter water table.

Colin Bignell

[sylva]

Coincidentally I walked past one today at chanctonbury, it had recently been restored. They were for watering grazing animals, had no drain or overflow and mostly relied on the difference in rainfall (24" historically) and transpiration (12") and the fact the puddled clay stopped them from leaking. I am told dewponds truly dependant on condensation are fount in more arid regions.

My understanding is that you may freely discharge water falling onto your open land into a ditch, I doubt this is true for water from yards or roofs but don't know.

The landowner is normally responsible for watercourses on his land, unless they are major rivers when EA assume responsibility. Land drainage normally falls to the local authority (such as roadside ditches), surface water sewers and foul water sewers with the water company who have adopted the pipes.

AJH

[antz]

Hi

The deeds to the land sold to the preivious owner stated it was a dew pond! I am not too sure about this being the case now though! there is an original drain to the pond but this is what is blocked! I tried to get the water board to do something about this but as the problem was apprently on my land and not affrecting any other properties i had to fix it!

But now on rodding this drain the blockage is clearly not on my land and is on adjoing land and now iam the "any other" porperty that is being affected they might take note!

As an aside there was planning restriction on the land stating that this was for a dew pond and garden if its is clearly not a "dew" pond could this be a loop whole for me to pass some plans thought?? just a thought?

cheers