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We are The Pond Care Specialist located in Ankeny, IA, Midwest Pond Care offers high quality care for all of your pond maintenance needs. From aquatic vegetation control, to pond fountain and aeration installations, the team at Midwest Pond Care can tackle any issue our customer’s face. We strive to provide the best customer service possible at a reasonable price.

Fully licensed and insured.

Benefits of Pond Care Maintenance:

1. Vastly improves the aesthetic appeal of your pond.
2. Promotes a balanced ecosystem, ensuring the survival and well-being of wanted aquatic life.
3. Removes unwanted aquatic plant life.
4. Decreases foul odors due to algae blooms.
5. Removes muck, increasing depth and quality of water.
6. Call today to schedule your pond evaluation 712-229-3554

Services We Offer:

• Pond evaluation
  • Pond Water testing
  • Measuring size and depth
  • Identifying aquatic plants
  • Overview of aquatic life
  • Inspecting pre-existing structures
    • Docks, Outflow & Inflow areas, aeration & fountains
• Aquatic Vegetations outline
  • Treat prolific growth of aquatic weeds and algae
  • Treat invasive like Cattails, Chara, phragmites and watermilfoil
• How to treat
  • Beneficial bacteria’s
  • Pond dye
  • Herbicides (eco-friendly to humans, fish, turtle, and all wildlife)
• Mosquito Treatment
  • Eliminating mosquito larvae before they become a problem
  • Non-toxic and safe to people, pets, birds, wildlife, and fish
• Fountain installation and full maintenance
  • Electrical installation
• Aerator installation and maintenance
  • Electrical
  • Wind
  • solar

Who We Serve

• Home Owner Associations
• Townhome Associations
• Commercial Development
• Retention Basins
• Private Ponds
• Municipalities
• Golf Course
• Back Yard Ponds
• Water Features

Contact Us

Josh Treybal, Pond Care Specialist
712-229-3554
JTreybal@iadredging.com

Dredging Services

Dredging services are also available through our dredging company, Midwest Dredging.

Dredging Benefits

• Cleaner water which helps maintain a flourishing ecosystem
• Helps preserve local flora & fauna
• Trash & muck removal
• Keeps ponds/lakes from becoming odorous
• Maintains an aesthetically appealing look
• Storm water management, increasing the volume of water an area can hold.

Dredging Contact

Sean Elwell, Owner
515-490-3041
SElwell@iadredging.com

Dredging is a process used to remove sediment buildup from the bottom, the sides and bank areas of ponds, lakes, and waterways. A specialized piece of equipment called a dredge creates a vacuum or suction that sucks up and pumps out the unwanted sediment and debris to a holding basin or dewatering bags.  

How Do Ponds Fill up with Sediment?

Man-made bodies of water such as golf courses, retention basins and HOA’s ponds are continually trying to reclaim the land that is now underwater. Various biological processes can contribute and even speed up the land reclamation.

The wind blows leaves, grass, and other organic debris onto the water surface where they sink to the deepest part of the pond. This area is known as a dead-zone. Beneficial bacteria which would normally break down the organic debris cannot live in this low-oxygen part of the water.

As such, sediment starts to accumulate over time. This, in turn, releases enormous quantities of nutrients which feed nuisance algae or weed growth. As time goes by, the sediment starts to accumulate until the entire pond has been turned into a smelly swamp.

Dredging avoids this by removing the nutrient-rich sediment that can lead to algae outbreaks and decreased water depths. The natural balance of the ecosystem is soon restored after a pond has been dredged.

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How Dredging Works

A Dino6 dredge operator typically works from a floating platform equipped with a submersible boom. The operator lowers the boom assembly, on the end of which is an agitator and pump that’s used to loosen sediment and safely transport it away. This process can be used to create new waterways, reopen old ones, mine for metals, maintain ecosystems, clean up trash and debris, restore shorelines and much more. In the video above, deposited sediment on the edge of a waterway is being removed.

In addition to the highly popular and versatile cutter-suction method of dredging, there are also plain-suction, auger-suction and jet-lift methods that work successfully in different circumstances to remove sediment.

Regardless of which method is employed, all dredging operations must be carried out in full compliance with any applicable local and federal laws and how they direct the safe disposal of dredged materials.

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How Does Dredging Keep a Pond Healthy?

If your pond resides in an area that is prone to flooding, dredging can help prevent this by removing excess sediment. This can help protect against a catastrophic loss of plant and aquatic life in the event of a flood or heavy rain event.

Dredging can also help increase the size of the pond. As the mud, weeds, and trash are removed, the pond can now support more aquatic wildlife. This holds true for ponds that double as a fishing hole (such as an HOA pond). Removal of sediment will allow for a healthier ecosystem which in turn will support the well-being of the fish and aquatic life.

Property values will also be increased. Nobody likes a smelly, algae-ridden pond. The curb appeal of a house that has an ugly pond in the backyard isn’t very good. By dredging your HOA pond, you’ll find that local wildlife will return to the area and make it more beautiful.

If you ever take a paddleboard, canoe, kayak, or a larger boat out on a lake or pond you have to be mindful of sediment, muck, & trash build-up below the lake’s surface. The more sediment & muck accumulation a lake or pond has the greater the impact it will have on the quality of the body of water for all recreational activities. Dredging should be done to a lake or pond when the sediments are beginning to affect the water quality and the aquatic-life living there as well as recreational activities. Midwest Dredging provides a cost-effective way to dredge sediment & muck without harming the environment in the process.

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Why Should I Dredge My Pond?

Are you on the fence about turning your odorous, green pond into a healthy, vibrant area?

Dredging is essential in keeping varying bodies of water clean for both human & aquatic-life. Sediment & muck accumulation will occur naturally over time, and if unattended can adversely affect recreational activities such as kayaking, fishing, or swimming.

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What Exactly Is Dredging?

As sand and silt wash downstream, sedimentation gradually fill ponds and lakes. This material must be periodically removed by dredging.

Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies. It is a routine necessity in waterways around the world because sedimentation—the natural process of sand and silt washing downstream—gradually fills ponds, lakes, and waterways.

Dredging often is focused on maintaining or increasing the depth of any body of water. Dredging is also performed to reduce the exposure of fish, wildlife, and people to contaminants and to prevent the spread of contaminants to other areas of the water body. This environmental dredging is often necessary because sediments in and around cities and industrial areas are frequently contaminated with a variety of pollutants. These pollutants are introduced to waterways from point of sources such as sewer overflows, municipal and industrial discharges, and spills or nature; or maybe introduced from nonpoint sources such as surface runoff and atmospheric deposition.

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What Does Dredging Help?

Dredging helps remediate eutrophication which is an excess of nutrients in the water due to runoff. This can cause dense plants like weeds & algae to over-populate the area, smothering other plant & animal-life, leading to oxygen deprivation.

Riprap is used where a shoreline is continuously exposed to moving or rushing water:

• Along a lake shoreline to limit erosion associated with wave action.
• Along jetties to control wave pushing all they to a marina, beach or docks
• Along a shore line to improve aesthetics of a pond or lake.

Preventing erosion helps to keep the public safe. At first glance, riprap may seem like a simple thing but the power of water is strong in pushing against the shoreline or controlling the runoff from fields, parking lots and housing developments.  Determining the effective size and amount of rock is key to a finished look to any pond, lake, or water way.

Dredging is a routine necessity in most bodies of water that are susceptible to sediment build-up. A dredging machine, or in this case, the Dino6, is used to loosen up and remove sediment, trash, debris, & muck by way of submersible pumps where it is then safely removed & disposed of off-site.

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Additional Services We Offer:

• Algae Control
• Emergent Shoreline Control
• Goose Repellent
• Aquatic Vegetation Control
• Problem-Solving Solutions

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Who Do We Service?

• Home-Owner Associations
• Private Ponds or Lakes
• Commercial Developments
• Municipalities

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Regulations We Follow:

Midwest Dredging & Pond Care abides by all local, state, and federal regulations in regards to dredging and the proper disposal of sediment, debris, muck, & trash materials.