capturing road side drainage

I live in a Forest, and when it rains a good stream of water flows out of the forest, down a road near me and drops into a dry creek.
Some years ago I realised it was a lost resource for myself, so I dug a 12 M earth drain when the ground was wet and within a single winter my dam was being filled.
Now instead of it evaporating away it is constantly topped up and the level now rises and falls about 900mm at the most.
Such water is perfect for irrigation etc and should be grabbed when possible.
If my dam is full it just continues down the creek bed.

Most excellent!   A great example of there being so very many things "out there" that can be utilized on the homestead (that range from minimal to huge) for no monetary cost.  Labor is good exercise (typically LOL) so it is a win/win.

Dear Hubby diverted the rainwater that washes down our road into our pond.

That worked for a few years until that washed out our road and we had to pay a guy to bring in road base and fix the road.

In my ecosystem, deep desert, the most consistent rain capture comes from road run-off. My catch-basin  captures a tremendous amount of soil, the most fertile on the ranch. Good thing that the collected sediment holds like 40% water, cause even if the basin is full of soil, it still sinks a lot of water into the earth.

Anne, do you have a photo?
- Do you get a lot of water flowing?
- Is the area steep?
- Do you have friable, loose soil?
In my case, the council grade the road 2 or 3 times a year,
- my ground is flat
- the top soil is only 6 inches deep and that is  removed to form my channel!

For a decade my father diverted water from the public ditch along a highway that was flooding a corner of his property, sending it into a big deep dugout that provided all sorts of wildlife habitat and nesting space, and also provided water for all of us who planted gardens there.

This year, the powers-that-be did a ton of work on the highway, adding turning lanes and such at each country intersection. As a result, the little wetlands that fed my father's discreet ditches and culverts were carefully graded over and lost forever. I suppose the engineer thought this was progress.

However, based on the local topography I think the water will still come along the highway.I've already scoped out the low spot where it will slow down. I can trench and drop in free weeping tile pipe right up the fenceline, and make some sort of discreet French drain on the public side. In years to come a few discreet sandbags might temporarily reduce the flow into the downstream culvert, but I won't poke the bear now since the site will certainly be inspected to make sure reclamation efforts were acceptable.

Now, I do ponder the water quality. When the sediment was dropped in two small wetlands, I was less concerned. Now it will be quite direct from a long-established and busy two-lane highway (and freshly repaved to boot). But it's a big, bioactive dugout and I will have to hope that all the active microbes will break down any stray nasties. And anyway we need the water.

John C Daley wrote:Anne, do you have a photo?
- Do you get a lot of water flowing?
- Is the area steep?
- Do you have friable, loose soil?
In my case, the council grade the road 2 or 3 times a year,
- my ground is flat
- the top soil is only 6 inches deep and that is  removed to form my channel!

The way the water turned the road into a rut, we must have gotten a lot of water or it looked that way.  We have been in a drought the last few years and still are.

My dirt is caliche and so is the road base.

I live on top of a mountain though the road is flat.

I have no top soil, just caliche.

I have not heard that expression.
From ; https://aglab.ars.usda.gov/let-s-get-to-work/plant-growth-and-root-development-resource-material#:~:text=Caliche%20is%20a%20shallow%20layer,semiarid%20areas%20throughout%20the%20world.

Caliche is used in construction worldwide.
Its reserves in the Llano Estacado in Texas can be used in the manufacture of Portland cement; the caliche meets the chemical composition requirements and has been used as a principal raw material in Portland cement production.
Caliche is often a challenge to agriculture.
It interferes with proper soil drainage, the formation of plant roots, and it also can contain soluble minerals that are not beneficial to plants.
The impermeable caliche prevents plant roots from penetrating to deeper soil layers, which limits the supply of nutrients, water, and space, making it difficult for the plants to develop normally.

Anne Miller wrote:I have no top soil, just caliche.

Oh, wow. That has to be one of the toughest permie challenges, short of colonizing Mars.