Answer
Who clears retention ponds and drainage ditches in Central Florida?
The short answer
Element Environmental does, for community associations, CDDs, developers and property owners across six Central Florida counties. The work takes sediment, silt and overgrowth out of ponds and ditches, reshapes the banks, clears stormwater conveyance and restores the capacity the system was built with. Estimates are free and the typical response is 24 to 48 hours.
Why does a retention pond stop working?
Capacity. A retention pond is sized to hold a certain volume of stormwater, and every wet season it loses some of it to sediment, silt and vegetation. The company’s own page puts it plainly: over time ponds and drainage systems collect sediment, silt and vegetation that slow water flow and reduce capacity.
Nothing looks wrong until the storm that the pond was built for arrives and the water has nowhere to go.
What does the clearing involve?
Five things, published on the drainage and pond clearing page.
Improved water flow. Restore capacity and keep water moving where it should.
Pond and ditch restoration. Remove the build-up, reshape the banks, and return the pond or ditch to full function.
Vegetation removal. Clear invasive growth and overgrowth that block flow.
Erosion support. Stabilise the shorelines and help prevent the next washout.
Safer shorelines. Cleaner, safer water edges for people, property and wildlife.
The scope also names ditch restoration and stormwater conveyance clearing, which is the part between the ponds: the swales and ditches that carry water from one to the next and silt up just as fast.
Who usually calls?
Community associations and CDDs, more than anyone, because the ponds are the part of the common ground that gets visibly worse every wet season and the part a board is responsible for. Element publishes site maintenance, storm cleanup, vegetation management and erosion control for communities as a client type, and pond work runs through the middle of all four.
Developers call when a pond on a cleared site has to be brought back to its design capacity before the next phase, and property owners when a ditch at the boundary stops draining.
Is pond clearing the same as erosion repair?
Clearing restores capacity. If the bank itself is failing, that is a repair, and the two are often found together. The erosion repair page covers shoreline and bank stabilisation. On a golf course the same work turns up as pond edge restoration, which the golf course page covers.
What decides the cost?
What has to come out and where it goes. Dredged sediment is wet, heavy and has to be dewatered and either spread or hauled, and that is usually the largest item. Bank reshaping, access for equipment to the water’s edge, and how far the ditches run are the others. None of it can be priced from a phone call, which is why the estimate follows a site visit.
How do I get someone out?
Call (863) 797-9970 or use the form. Typical response time is 24 to 48 hours. For a community, having the stormwater plan or the as-built drawings to hand helps, because they say what the pond’s capacity was supposed to be. The main land clearing guide covers the company’s other work.
Questions we get asked
How often does a retention pond need clearing?
It depends on what drains into it and how much vegetation grows on it. A pond fed by a large cleared area silts faster than one in established ground. A board that has not had one looked at since the community was built is usually overdue.
Can you clear a pond that is full of water?
Yes, that is the normal case. How the sediment is removed and dewatered depends on access and the pond, and is settled at the assessment.
Do you handle the permits?
Raise it at the first conversation. Stormwater rules apply to pond work in Central Florida, and they are cheaper to deal with before a machine is on site.
What about the ditches between ponds?
Stormwater conveyance clearing and ditch restoration are in the published scope. A clean pond with a blocked ditch upstream is still a flooded street.
Tell us what is on the site
Roughly how many acres, what is growing on it, and what has to happen after it is cleared. The estimate is free and the site visit settles the things a phone call cannot.
Keep reading
- Land clearing and site work in Central FloridaHow land clearing works on a Central Florida site: what gets removed, what happens to the material, what follows the clearing, and who the work is for.
- What land clearing costs per acre, and what moves the numberWhat moves the cost of clearing an acre in Central Florida: density, what happens to the material, wet ground, access, and the work that follows.
- All guidesEvery guide on elementenv.com in one place.
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