The good news: Nebraska Game and Parks Commission officials are planning a renovation project for the pond at Chadron State Park. The bad: They say the pond will have to remain dry this summer in order to ensure the project is completed correctly and efficiently.
When the project is complete, park visitors will notice considerable improvements to the one-acre pond, they say.
The pond, which receives water from an electrical pump and nearby Chadron Creek, has been empty since last fall. Park staff members decided to drain the pond because its outlet structure, with a series of vertical boards damming the water, had become dilapidated and needed repairs. The draining gave Game and Parks engineers the opportunity to study the pond’s condition.
Their site surveys showed that the pond was holding only four acre feet of water, far short of the 10 acre feet allocated to the park by the Department of Natural Resources. That’s because a lot of the water had been displaced by silt, much of which probably eroded into the pond from the incline to U.S. Highway 385 to the east.
The pond, a scenic attraction for trout fishermen and paddle boaters, is located along the highway nine miles south of Chadron. Kirk Nelson of the Commission’s parks division said the pond is an important asset to Chadron State Park, so it’s important to take the right steps in fixing it. Filling the pond this summer may satisfy users in the short term, he said, but would be costly and problematic for the project’s long-term success.
“It costs a lot in electricity to pump the water to fill the pond. We’d also have to wait for it to dry before beginning excavation work,” Nelson said. “It will be better to wait to fill it until the work is done and we have all the tests completed on the outlet structure.”
Engineers noted that the pond had not only become shallow from silt, but it also was losing a lot of water to seepage. Their permeability studies estimated an average of 3.4 inches, at a rate of 106 gallons per minute, were being lost to seepage each day. Engineers hope to alleviate that problem with plans to install an impermeable liner of clay.
Engineers still plan to study the pipes leading to and from the pond and creek this summer. They suspect the outlet pipe may be leaking under the paved road between them.
Nelson is hopeful to receive grants in order to fund the project’s estimated $227,000 cost. If all goes well, the project could be complete in summer 2015.
