Pond Doctors a Family Tradition from 1955.

The first Pond Doctor was Owen A. Biller, Sr. He fought in France during World War II. He had planned to be a wildlife biologist before he enlisted in the Army. He was admitted to the University of Chicago and had an internship lined up with Marlin Perkins at Brookfield Zoo. Like so many men during that time, he put his personal plans on hold and served his country. He served his country with distinction having received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Good Conduct Medal, Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He returned from the war and went to work for United States Steel Corporation of Gary, Indiana. He studied electrical engineering. Before he retired, he was Head Utilities Analyst for USS Corporation of Indiana.

He and his brother bought farms adjacent to one another. They immediately began building earthen water containment structures-PONDS. As a small boy, I recall that they had a small Ford tractor and a two-handled scoop that was pulled behind the tractor and lifted manually to dump the dirt where it was needed. That was too heavy for me and all I could do was bring them water and stay out of the way. The first pond I remember helping build was on my uncle Swede’s farm. We called it the Woods Pond because it was built in his oak thicket. That pond was built using a farm plow, disc and two-handled walk behind scoop. The water in that pond went over a spillway that was made of concrete. It was discovered that “over the top” spillways left a lot to be desired. The water could go around the end and erode the dam and that was “dam bad”. That is another thing us kids liked, we could say dam and not get our mouth washed out with soap.

Dad researched the best means of allowing excess water to leave the pond without doing erosion damage. What he found is a device called a “drop inlet spillway”. The drop inlet spillway places a large “down-comer tube” in the pond and inserts a smaller “outlet tube” in the bottom of the “down comer” that goes all the way through the earthen dam. Additionally, we discovered that it is necessary to dig down to clean dirt without vegetation in order to have a good seal on the dam. A “core trench” was dug with a backhoe and then filled with good packing clay. The “outlet tube” went through the bottom of the earthen dam and that solved the problem of runoff water and erosion. It was also discovered that the “outlet tubes” had to have muskrat and crawdad collars to stop those pesky critters from burrowing next to the “outlet tube” and causing seepage. These things were learned through trial and error. We had to rebuild the dam in the Woods Pond several times in order to account for each of these problems. Needless to say, learning by correcting your mistakes is costly. Fortunately, we learned from our mistakes and made fewer and fewer mistakes. We are so old now, that we are beyond perfect. Well, honestly, we don’t make as many mistakes now.

The project of being a Dam Building Biller has been passed on to my brother and I. My grandma Biller shortened it to those Dam Billers. It sounded like builders, but was a lot funnier. As you have gathered we had a lot of fun with these projects and still have a sense of humor. The largest project we did was to build a 15-acre lake on my father’s farm. The drop inlet spillway was about 10 feet in diameter for the “down comer” and dropped 20 feet. The “outlet tube was 36 inches in diameter and after a good rain I have seen it flowing like a garden hose on full. I was old enough to work on that project. My brother and I have grown up with the love of ponds, the outdoors, family, and good friends. We enjoy completing the water projects we begin.

We have a device that is trademarked. The idea came from the original pond doctor and Douglas. It was developed in the early 1960’s. It is called the BUBBLE GUN™. The logo and name are trademarked. The trademark is a blunderbuss shooting out bubbles. The bubble diffuser looks like the bore of a blunderbuss and we could not resist that logo. Dad called his first contraption a BUBBLE GUN™. The first BUBBLE GUN™ was a large electric motor driven air compressor that forced air through a hose and into the water through a crude diffuser. Thankfully, our current BUBBLE GUN™ is much more efficient and quieter. We use a one eighth horsepower high efficiency air compressor that goes to a highly efficient diffuser. The unit uses about the same amount of electricity as a 75-watt light bulb and is capable of oxygenating a 5-acre pond. Dad was here to see the development of the BUBBLE GUN™ and was pleased to see how Douglas had improved the concept. We love making ponds and caring for them. When a person uses our products and is pleased with the esthetic changes in their pond we are gratified to have been a part of the transformation. The only thing that could make each new project more exciting would be for Dad to be with us.