Log pond

[4][5] Log ponds are convenient water reservoirs for firefighting at sawmills; and for routine cooling and lubrication of saw blades and other mill machinery.

Boiler blowdown, lumber drying kiln condensate, and exhaust steam from sawmill machinery sometimes kept a log pond from freezing during cold weather.

[6] Log ponds are convenient reservoirs for water recycling in applications including hydraulic debarkers or dust suppression.

Log ponds offer some wastewater treatment similar to a settling basin and facultative lagoon.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency published wet storage category effluent limitations in the 1970s prohibiting discharge of floating woody debris and requiring log pond overflow pH to be between 6 and 9.

A "full deck" of logs awaiting the mill.
Log being hoisted from a log pond into the sawmill.