For example, a 5-acre production pond with an average depth of 4 feet has 20 acre-feet of water. One acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons. A well yielding 50 gallons per minute (gpm) requires 2,172.3 hours or 90.5 days of continuous pumping to fill the pond. A 1,000 gpm well would take 108.6 hours or 4.5days to fill the same pond. Due to the combined effects of evaporation and seepage, ponds can lose ¼ inches or more of water depth each day. A 5-acre pond could lose 33,943 gallons daily. In this example, it would take the 50 gpm well 11.3 hours to replace the water lost due to evaporation in a 24-hour period and the 1000 gpm well about 34 minutes. Under average conditions in the
southeastern United States, a minimum water supply of about 17 gpm is needed for each acre of water.