How to Keep Your HOA Pond Water Clean and Clear

Name: AUS Dredge and Dive
Address: 18911 US -377, Cresson, TX, 76035, US
Telephone: (817) 377-8512
Price range: $$$$

HOA ponds, also known as stormwater retention ponds, are an important component of your community's drainage system. They help prevent localized flooding by slowing down or completely suppressing deluges of water from a rainfall event. They also retain water for a sufficient period of time so that any attached sediment and pollutants settle to the bottom of the pond. The pond releases clean water into nearby streams and larger bodies of water. Typically, the homeowner association is responsible for ensuring that these bodies of water are working as intended. However, this comes with additional responsibility. HOA ponds are usually located near homes, placing an extra burden on the HOA manager to ensure that the ponds are clean and free from unsightly (and often noxious-smelling) algae outbreaks. Before we show you how to keep your water crystal-clear, we want to talk about the two leading causes of dirty HOA pond water:

Rainwater Runoff

Water is washed downhill from streets, driveways, and backyards whenever a rainstorm hits. As it flows down to the retention pond, it collects various chemicals and pollutants along the way. The increased pollutants in the pond's water column can exponentially increase phosphorus, nitrite, and nitrate levels, creating the necessary ingredients for a nuisance algae bloom. Not only will the pond be covered in a thick green mat of unsightly algae, but it can also cause a fish to die off, creating some pretty smelly odors for those who live downwind.

Organic Debris

Organic debris, such as leaves and pet waste, will eventually find their way down to the bottom of the pond. The beneficial bacteria typically eating this organic matter cannot live at these depths. As time goes by, a massive pile of organic muck starts to grow in size. This muck offsets the delicate water chemistry and adds tremendous amounts of nitrites and nitrates. Algae blooms will then take hold as the muck below provides a continuous source of nutrients.

How to Keep Your HOA Pond Water Clear

While dirty pond water is something all HOA community managers deal with at some point in time, there are a few things that you can do to help ensure that it won't happen regularly:

Chemical Water Treatments

If you have the budget, you can buy various chemical water treatments that will keep the water crystal clear. The downside to treating the water, in addition to the expense, is that some of the treatments can introduce toxic chemicals that might get ingested by the pets of local residents and wildlife or get inadvertently sent downstream to another body of water.

Create a Sense of Community

Homeowners are responsible for a fair amount of the pollutants washed downstream into the stormwater retention ponds. Creating community awareness is a relatively inexpensive way to attack this problem head-on. You can distribute flyers that explain the dangers of using certain fertilizers or chemical products to wash driveways. Inform residents of how they can do their part to help combat pollutants washed into the HOA ponds during a rainfall event. If local homeowners start to become more conscious of the chemical products they use in and around their homes, this will lead to much less frequent algae outbreaks.

HOA Pond Dredging

The best way to help ensure your stormwater retention ponds stay clean and clear is to have them dredged once or twice a year. Mechanical dredging will remove the bottom layer of organic muck responsible for the nuisance algae outbreaks. Best of all, it can be reused as a highly nutritious organic fertilizer for the common areas of the HOA community. A pond that is clean and clear of unsightly brown-yellow algae mats on the surface can also increase the value of nearby homes. The opposite is just as true. Nobody wants to buy a house where they have a view (or smell) of an unsightly stormwater retention pond. Nationwide Pond Dredging Services At American Underwater Services, we specialize in HOA, golf courses, farms, and homeowner pond dredging. We can help you regain control over your ponds and turn them into crystal-clear water havens for fish, animals, and people alike. Call us today at (817) 377-8512 to learn more about our nationwide pond dredging and cleaning services. We can travel anywhere in the continental U.S. to help you with your dredging needs. [author_box]

Anthony Di Iulio the founder, president and co-owner of American Underwater Services, Inc., started his business in 1999 with only three employees. Today this commercial diving company employs nearly 30 people and handles over 500 projects annually. Anthony moved to Fort Worth from Louisiana with his family in 1976. He worked summers during high school welding underwater for a marina on Benbrook Lake. Eventually he took scuba lessons after almost drowning on the job. Those lessons led him to training at a deep sea diving school in Houston, which included training on offshore oil rigs. Anthony spent several years in Louisiana working on offshore rigs and on inland jobs at power plants and dams before starting American Underwater Services, Inc.