Irrigation ponds have excellent potential to improve agricultural water security. These ponds help with the provision, capture, and storage of water for irrigation across the country. Irrigation ponds can additionally supply a water source to recharge groundwater and provide an array of economic and environmental benefits.
Here are some of the most popular reasons people opt to build irrigation ponds over similar water features.
Easy Filling
While many other types of ponds are often expensive to fill, irrigation ponds typically take care of themselves.
Farm and irrigation ponds are easily filled by rainfall, especially ponds that are sited at low points and thus able to collect runoff from higher in the watershed. Irrigation ponds can also be filled with tailwater from irrigation. This water can then be recycled.
Many farm and irrigation ponds are filled by diverting water from streams at peak winter flows. This helps to offset water withdrawals in the dry seasons when high instream flows are necessary.
Ability to Recharge Groundwater
Groundwater is used for drinking water by over 50 percent of people in the United States. This includes nearly everyone who lives in a rural area. However, the most common use of groundwater is irrigating crops.
Most groundwater supplies are replenished, also known as recharged, by rain or snowmelt that seeps into the crevices and cracks beneath the land's surface. In some areas, people face water shortages because their groundwater is used up faster than it is replenished. In other locations, groundwater is polluted by human activities.
Irrigation and farm ponds can recharge groundwater. This helps by keeping more water in your system for longer periods, which provides greater quantities for use in your watershed. Devoting more land to farm ponds situated in valleys that overdraft groundwater can minimize any impacts and contribute positively to your overall watershed management.
Control Tailwater
Tailwater refers to the surface runoff which results from crop irrigation. Some irrigation practices, like flood irrigation or sprinkler irrigation, can result in excess water application that does not fully infiltrate nearby soil. Sloped fields allow for excess water to run off your field and discharge to a natural water body or drainage channel. Keep in mind, that tailwater can often carry pollutants, like nutrients (from fertilizers), silt, and pesticides.
Ponds can additionally be used to filter, store, and trap any tailwater from irrigation.
Any sediment found can be settled and returned to your fields while water can be reused in future irrigations. This helps reduce the need to pump or divert an unnecessary volume of irrigation water.
Remember, pumping water from a pond requires significantly less energy than pumping groundwater!
In order to make the most of your irrigation pond, you want to install a high-quality irrigation pond liner that ensures water stays in your pond without any leaching. BTL Liners fabricates AquaArmor, the leading liner in the irrigation industry, in custom shapes and sizes for any pond project.
