Detention or Retention Pond?
Retention and Detention ponds are two different types of ponds but they both help maintain storm-water runoff to prevent flooding and downstream erosion. They are also designed to help improve water quality in an adjacent stream, river, lake or bay.
Retention Ponds are designed to hold a specific amount of water indefinitely. They are basins that catch runoff from higher elevations. You will likely see retention ponds near development areas and they are often required in new a development of buildings, parking lots or roads.
Detention Ponds are low lying areas that are designed to temporarily hold a set amount of water while slowly draining to another location. Detention ponds are usually dry except during or after heavy rains or snow melt.
Why should I maintain these ponds?
Maintaining these types of ponds are essential to the health of the water flowing in and out of them and to keeping your storm water management system working correctly. What happens a lot of times is that they are required to be put in, but the association in charge of maintaining them forgets about them. Then they are only noticed when something goes wrong. They are actually very important for proper drainage, filtering water that needs to re-enter the water system and keeping the developments or parking lots that they are next to from flooding every time it rains. What happens over time is that the organic material such as cattails or grasses that grow in the ponds continue to grow and die each season. If they are not cut down or removed they build up on the bottom of the pond and eventually make the pond shallower than the original depth. This dead material will block the inlets (where water enters the pond) or outlets (the ponds overflow source) and cause the pond to back up, or over flow. Over grown trees, or unwanted trees can cause major problems with these inlets and outlets. This will eventually cause the water to not drain properly from the parking lots or building developments and cause flooding. If these ponds are ignored for too long they will eventually have to be dug out again which can cost thousands of dollars, most times hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Our Pond Preservation Program for large ponds is to keep these ponds from becoming un-manageable and hopefully make it so the pond will never have to be dredged again. Our maintenance program includes adding specialized treatments to keep muck levels from rising, and the water clean and clear. All of our treatments are safe for the environment; we do not use chemicals. We check the inlets and outlets to make sure they are still working, free of any debris that may block them, and free of any plant material that may be growing in the wrong areas. We also manage the plant material growing in the ponds to keep them from getting out of control. All organic material is cut down in the fall and removed from the area so that it does not build up on the bottom of the pond.
Natural Shoreline
Poseidon Ponds & Landscaping is a Michigan Certified Natural Shoreline Professional in Washtenaw County Michigan (MI). In order to become certified you must complete a three day classroom instruction, a one day field exercise installing a natural shoreline and pass a certification exam. The certification is good for three years and is renewed with continuing education courses in the field. The course is designed to equip landscape, marine, and natural resource professionals to design, implement, and maintain natural shoreline landscapes on inland lakes. We completed our first natural shoreline in 2014 in Grass Lake, Michigan. Check out our youtube videos on our first natural shoreline. Cory explains what we did from start to finish for restoring our clients shoreline on Clear Lake.
