“Yep… these culvert pipes are too small for a dam this large. It’s the second time I’ve notified the D.O.T and they still haven’t fixed it” - Post10 probably 😂

The way this fella is getting so close over the pipes, I figure they found this video posthumously.

The power of water. Never to be underestimated.

What I find amazing is how all that vegetation held that bank together for as long as it did. Also how much the presence of all the grass and other plants limited the size of the breach. I gotta say that our videographer here has a lot more balls than I'd ever have, standing next to a failing dam bank like that.

This is why it is useful to plan for overtopping of dams, such as by installing surfaces on the top of the dam and creating an intentional dip in the middle, extreme overflow like this would then only pour through a given channel

In the back of my mind, I can hear Post 10..."Beavers gonna be angry." And this is why when you are confronted with water flowing across the road, the best thing to do is "Turn around, don't drown."

LEASON HERE,dont cheap out with Mikey Mouse plastic pipes and consult an engineer.

Thats some long term neglect and shoddy repairs that finally caused this dam failure, even the overflow was built with a failure point built in. You never leave a waterfall at the end of a spill way because for how far it is off the geound the water will eventually take 3-4x that much dirt out from under it and cause constant collapse at the end working its way all way back to the dam.

This video popped up in my recommended watches and I sat here in the shed and watched the entire thing. That area looks like a lot of fun to be in, I love the landscape!

I have 2 ponds, one 1 and a half acre 25 feet deep and the other 1 and a third acre 17 feet deep both have large overflow tubes. I clean all the vegetation from the overflow every month and before every storm. All over flows are secure with field rocks to mitigate erosion. Having ponds is great, but be prepared to work.

Thanks for the great footage ..and the bravery to stand so close ...for some reason I am fascinated by draining waters ..

All things considered that held up way better than I though it would at least, I thought you were gonna lose your pump sitting on the dam for sure, not awesome to have happen to you, but awesome to watch so I appreciate that buddy 👍

Nothing like watching nature take back what man has tried to contain.

Anyone else feel guilty watching this because you find it soothing and calming? I have watched this a half dozen times since it was posted. I always end up feeling a little guilty. I am receiving comfort (I hate to say pleasure) from a video that was obviously taken at a difficult and disappointing time for the owner. So, I am sorry for enjoying this Paw. As an aside, can I point out how much I cannot stand the comments by people who feel the need to demonstrate their smug superiority? I mean, it's obvious this guy is having a rough time and you go out of your way to basically call him stupid without knowing the entire story? That tells me more about their character than anything else.

8:00 Nature at it's finest, doing what it's going to do, regardless.

Not sure why the culvert failed, clearly state of the art construction with the 5 12" felx pipes and sand holding it all back.

this while tragic is so satisfying to watch.. the power of water is incredible

no idea why this was in my recommended but im glad it was. i understand this is a dangerous and probably annoying thing but it was also strangely beautiful?? like idk how to describe it, nature is cool and it kind of does whatever it wants and there's not a lot we can do to stop it sometimes. thanks for taking the risk and recording this for us!! very interesting to watch :]

My buddy bought a nice big piece of property on top of a hill. He also decided to build a big pond on his plot. He didn't do what he was supposed to do and have some one with the EPA talk to him and view the property so it get's done right. 3 years after he filled the pond the dam failed and unfortunately there was a home at the bottom of the hill below the dam area. All that water ran right through their home. Good thing he has a lot of money because he had a helluva bill to pay and he is so lucky no one was in the home when it happened. The EPA fined the crap out of him also.

Awsome video. I'm amazed you were able to catch it as it happened. Well at least the water is drained so you can fix it correctly.

Hi I’m watching this from an area where we have drought most of the year and we import our water. Feels like I’m watching heaven seeing so much water from rain.

I think I see where your new drain improvements need to be. In fact it looks like the digging has begun already.

I wonder if this guy knew, when he made this video, the internet’s fascination with large amounts of fast-moving water

Very cool. Thanks for documenting. I enjoyed watching this very much. Such a pretty place.

I admire your ability to just stand there and watch - I'd have been away looking for a big stick to poke a bigger breach to release the water 😀

I kept wanting to reach out and pull you away from the edge. Omg. 😳

Am amazed @ how few people such as the ones that built this earthen dam seriously underestimate the power of water🌊and it's potential destructive aftermath downstream.

From the looks of the erosion over the pipes, it looks like it has been eroding for a while. That is what lack of maintenance gets you.

Once in a while, you got to drain the pond to recharge the ecosystem of the pond.

it was really good of you to let the county know that was happening!

Highly satisfying to watch the water doing its thing.

im sorry this happened to you, but this is an amazing video. thanks for posting it.

Strangely hypnotic watching this mini disaster 👀

This was so satisfying. Thank you!!!👍👍

Should build the dam with your piping 3 1/2 feet thick retaining dam wall. With piping through the wall of the dam bigger diameter pipes will work. I'd incorporate these pipes into the 3 1/2 foot thick dam wall as well as rebar for additional structural strength for the dam wall that was washed away. For the piping on the wall you may want to add a pressure plate at the end. Maybe a water level sensor will help as well so that when the water gets too high it'll automatically open the pressure plate and let water flow out safely. Hope this information helps you out.

That happened to me as well and the best way is to prevent this is spill ways on top of the dam about the full with of the dam make about 5-6 of them 5ft wide and 2-3 foot deep and pave the top. It's going to be expensive but it will likely to last you for decades

I would have NOT been standing that close, especially after it got going. That whole piece, 10 feet on either side, could have gone all at once.

It starts so slow and slowly picks up speed until it hit that point and just ramped up so quickly.

Wow man, that really sucks. I know what you mean about muskrats. My wife`s old place was an old fish hatchery and the muskrats tore the Hell out of the banks. When I moved in with her, I trapped or shot 17 of those little bastards. They destroy ponds like nobody`s business.

Lot of work ahead after this spillage. Hope you find time n' material to recover the damage. If so would be nice to see what you done to now.

Man, that's incredible to watch. Kinda sounds like you needed a drain to update the infrastructure anyway, as much as it probably hurt to watch it all flow away. I'm guessing you're into fishing? But I guess you have a good idea for what to plan for next time and how to hopefully make it easier to maintain.

suggestion wouldn't work in this case but for small dams you want to keep but keep a flow going run a piece of pipe with a swedge on the backend inside the pooled area. Make sure its far enough back the beaver won't plug it if its far enough back off the damn.

Would you be better served if you used a poly pipe, maybe 8', in the current spillway?

Thank you Paw95 for your reply to my comment I made to other posts. I have one more big comment I think will help people understand the volume of water, the "mass" of things we see here. Look at the water level of the ,,, big pond. Begin to end. How much of it has it changed from the start of the video to the end.The water level doesn't seem to be changing much over the time of the recording. And yet it keeps on flowing. Look at the size of that body of water. How many gallon jugs of water would fit in there? You know how heavy a one gallon jug of milk/water is. At the end of the video. How many jugs are pouring out in ten seconds? That's a lot of weight.

That old spillway you made out of cinder blocks that is pretty neat and I feel bad for the poor fish that were in your pond and will end up in the field I'll pray for you God bless you sir

Thats nice to be able to have a pond that big. Even if it does get breeched and emptied once in a while.

Watch the ground behind you ,we were watching a similar event and dad felt the ground move ,we ran and a 10' section slid into channel the crack was behind us !!

You might lose that generator/pump too. It's pretty close to the pond edge.

The Title Should Be 'Erosion: Revenge Of The Creek'

Thanks for being so aware of what was happening and took the time and risk to record it.

that vegetation reallly slowed and mitigated the horizontal spreading of the breach. it would have been way wider on a bare embankment

Great video I just subscribed to your channel that looked like a pretty bad washout hopefully you didn't have a hard time getting it fixed

In my State. water empoundments of certain acreage ft, or w/ dams of certain height, or length and a number of other factors are required to be inspected annually. They must pass or be repaired or drained until repaired or removed entirely. The state has criteria of how the dam must be constructed, dimensions, materials etc. Galvanized pipes rust out, concrete pipes leak, plastic pipes get eaten. What a mess!!

That was honestly very satisfying to watch. Like watching dominoes fall after someone worked tirelessly building them up.

love the drainage video's 💚💚💙💙

This is a good example why unregulated earthen dams can be so dangerous, luckily there weren’t people downstream. And thru a lot of work it can be built back up and restocked, but it will be a whole lot of work!

I keep wondering what’s happening to homes and farms down stream. That’s a lot of water.

If you havent rebuilt put in a concrete pipe thats bigger then the amount comming in and its deeper then the main out flow where your spillway is the out flow with a valve built in. This way if you see a failure about to happen you can open it up to drain the whole pond controlled and fix the damage ande close the pipe. Plus if you know your about to get lots of rain more then normal you can use it to lower the level so the normal out flow wont have to work so hard.

"Won't be long before that things gonna go" *Stands directly in front of it*

call! not everyday you can see it collapse from the beginning.

What did the FISH say when he ran into a concrete wall ? Oh DAM

That was very relaxing. 😊

What did downstream look like? Did it affect anyone's home or business because that's a lot of water

Post10 did you do that?

That's one way to clean the gunk out of the pond

Needs to get a bunch of beavers.

At least you are doing ya part and stocking the river with fish mate 👍

I truly feel for you Sir, there is nothing good to say about this…

Bright side maybe!? If you have crops downstream they will love the rich soil next year

I felt that the cameraman was wanting the water to escape and at the same time hoping it would not!

Watching that plastic culvert bounce and twist down the breach .. That's one helluva water slide! I bet the white water rafting people are sad they missed this one.

Thanks for sharing this with us. Would PVC schedule 40 have held up better to the wildlife?

Oh my, I can hear your heart breaking. That’s the biggest manmade pond I’ve ever seen.

I’m wondering what damage it’s doing further down?

Why not have fixed it before it failed? The tree growing next to the exposed culvert pipes shows it has been bad for at least a year if not longer.

It's lights out when the water starts spilling over an earthen dam.

Wow that sucks, but it's still amazing to see the combined power of water and gravity and what kind of havoc it can create. You say both beavers and muskrats, but wouldn't the beavers try to block the pipes instead of chewing them up? 🤔

Looks so fun 😊 Bugs helped the fish concur more land 😜

Should be looking for gold brother

I love watching dirt bank erosion by fast moving water. Nature can be fascinating.

If you drop the existing spillway level, the pond will become a puddle. Defeats the purpose of having a pond. Build a second spillway at the same level as the other one. Maintain water depth, double the outflow.

Nothing like getting the dirt-first hand. Thank you for posting this... Auf Wiedersehen.

The beaver & muskrat were taking samples to maybe revers engineer it. I's sure it's way better than either of them have ever seen you would think they would embrace a nice turnkey home not contribute to its destruction

Don't know ya man but dang, I feel horrible for ya brother. That is absolutely gut punching.

Is that in Pennsylvania

I wonder what happened to the blue bottle at 10:43

You win this time, gravity.

What's scary is that a small stream flooded a whole field

I own 6 ponds in WV we have to do monthly inspections on our overflows and emergency over flows. We have to keep the dams mowed and can't have trees or shrubs planted on the damn or overflows. We have to have a emergency plan of who to contact incase a breach of our dams. We have to immediately trap or kill muskrat and beavers and fix all holes ASAP.

Post 10 probably dismantled a beavers home in a culvert upstream and caused this.

The only thing more blokey than drinking a beer watching it unfold, eiuld be a few mates drinking beer and observing with ya 😂

Would be cool to make a little hydroelectric dam there

9:54 "ahh dam". I see what you didn there..

Gona be a lot of silt in that field. Is that good or bad?

You might of mentioned it and I may have missed it, but is there any bass in there? I hate seeing this stuff as an angler

Hope you get your pond back and restocked.

i wanna see what it looks like after its done

I'm willing to bet a couple of beavers could have that rebuilt rock solid.

when I was young Ivied by a swamp on the Chesapeake bay and when we get high tides with rough waves the bay would cut off the swamp from draining by pushing sand up with waves, I always loved unblocking it and the waves or rapids were huge rolling waves wasn't as big as your pond but still was a lot of water couldn't walk in it you would be pushed over

Abysmal maintenance . That never just sneaks up suddenly .