If you live in a Homeowner’s Association (HOA) community, odds are good that you have a pond or lake nearby. HOA ponds are storm water ponds, either wet or dry, placed intentionally by the community developer for both their usefulness and aesthetic appeal.
But even if the pond or lake in your community does little more than enhance the appearance of your HOA, proper monitoring and maintenance should still be performed on a routine basis.
Proper long-term maintenance for a wet or dry storm water pond in a HOA community includes a number of critical tasks that HOAs often fail to perform. Because these bodies of water attract an incredible volume of organic debris like leaves, grass, decaying matter, and industrial run-off, they can create a nutrient-rich environment which allows algae and aquatic plant life to thrive, leading to poor overall water quality.
Differences Between Wet and Dry Ponds
Storm water ponds fall under two distinct categories – wet and dry. A wet pond is a retention pond or permanent pool that collects rainwater either for its attractiveness as a water feature, for its usefulness to local domestic and agricultural applications, or for the capture of storm water run-off. These are typically larger and are built at or above the water table. A dry pond or detention pond is used primarily for flood control and helps control the rate of runoff, drying over time. Dry ponds’ sizes vary according to the area’s runoff volume and are placed at the bottom elevation of the detention volume to enable drying.
Consequences of Neglect
There can be serious consequences for neglecting your storm water pond or lake. Aesthetics aside, these were created to manage the excess water run off during rain events. Without proper maintenance, these become less effective and the risk of flooding in your neighborhood becomes a real threat. In addition, if your HOA fails to properly maintain the storm water pond or lake, it may incur some serious daily or weekly fines until it’s brought back into compliance. Those fines can range from several thousand dollars to as much as $70,000 or more per month. Liens can be filed against HOAs for unpaid fines, which can lead to some significant legal trouble down the road. For your HOA pond to maintain compliance with local codes, following a set of Best Management Practices (BMPs) is the ideal way to avoid fines and reduce the risk of flooding for your community.
Best Management Practices for Ponds & Lakes
*Regular Inspection
*Documentation of Inspection Findings
*Routine Maintenance
*Remove sediment accumulations
*Remove trash, debris or other obstructions to water flow into or out of the pond
*Aquatic vegetation management
*Evaluating Structural Integrity of shorelines, inlets/outlets, spillways and other structural components
*Noting Erosion Problems
*Testing Water Quality
Professional Lake & Pond Management for HOAs
If your HOA wishes to stay on top of your wet or dry pond maintenance needs, we can help.
At ENVIROdredge, we provide regularly scheduled maintenance and inspection programs for our HOA customers’ ponds, lakes, and other bodies of water to ensure they stay healthy, attractive, and useful. Whether you need regularly scheduled maintenance on a monthly, yearly, or as-needed basis, our team understands and follows strict BMP guidelines with services like:
• Mowing
• Erosion Control
• Sediment Removal
• Inlet Clearing
• BMP Adherence
• And Much More
For more information on ENVIROdredge and our storm water pond maintenance services, sediment management services, aquatic plant management services, and more, contact our team today.