Another Facet of Pond Maintenance: Structure

By Shannon Junior, Aquatic Ecologist

The staff members of SOLitude Lake Management that service your ponds throughout the year under an Annual Lake Management Contract are an educated and experienced group of professional ecologists, biologists, and environmental specialists. We are highly qualified to assess and maintain the aesthetic and ecological integrity of your aquatic resources, including water quality monitoring, fish and wildlife habitat management, nuisance vegetation control, and maintenance of fountains and aeration systems. 

But there is another facet of pond maintenance that is not directly covered by a lake management contract, which is the structural and functional maintenance of your water features. This would include inspection and repair of issues such as erosion on the bond banks, clogging or cracking of inlet or outlet structures, dam embankment leakage, sedimentation, etc. In many jurisdictions, an annual structural inspection is performed by the County or other regulating agency – this is particularly true for stormwater management facilities. However, in other areas it is the responsibility of the facility owner to secure an inspection. And for some privately owned and maintained ponds and lakes, there are no formal guidelines that require an annual inspection.  Regardless of the situation in your particular vicinity, it is highly recommended that your facility is thoroughly inspected on an annual basis.

While the SOLitude staff is very diligent about making observations of structural issues and notifying our clients, this is very different than having a formal annual structural inspection by a qualified professional engineer. The engineer will request the design plans for the facility, and will carefully check all of the important components of the pond to be sure that they are structurally intact and are functioning properly. When issues are identified, the inspection report will also recommend specific actions to remediate the problems. 

Structural inspections are an option on all of our new Annual Lake Management Contracts, and we also send out a reminder during the year to all of our clients recommending this service. Annual structural inspections frequently identify maintenance issues that when repaired early and proactively, can prevent more costly repairs in the future. They can also help to predict when expensive repairs will be required to help with budgeting for the inevitable expenditures. 

Please contact SOLitude Lake Management if you have further questions about the necessity and cost for an annual structural inspection of your facility. Our experts will be happy to discuss all of your lake, pond and fisheries needs. 888-480-5253 www.solitudelakemanagement.com