Back in the spring I dug 5 test holes with a backhoe and found clay in every spot for a pond location. However in TX you can receive financial assistance from NRCS if you meet criteria and build pond to their specs. So I called them hoping for assistance and waited 5 months for them to come hoping to receive some. They showed up Friday and dug 1 hole and deemed area unfit for pond. Knowing my results I asked her to dig another and she found clay in the 2nd spot but didn’t like the depth. Knowing my results I will probably just pursue pond on my own, however I was just curious what anyone’s else experience has been like with soil department and if mine was normal.

Question- who/how did you contact them?

I'm surprised they did anything, to be honest. All they did for me was to supply some soil maps.

I’m in TX and it works by county. So looked them up by the county’s website I believe.

I’m henderson county, how about you?

Harrison. I was told that the state of Texas no longer helps build ponds.

Mine was done by NRCS but it was a long time ago. It is my understanding that they no longer provide any of the finances for building a pond.

I had a couple dug last year. Fairly easy as they will pay for the first 2000 yards of dirt, but it is a livestock use program. That equates to a 1 acre foot pond, or about 1/4 surface acre pond. They determine where it will be located based on the watershed. If you don't have it fenced and cattle I don't think they do anything towards building them.

Same here with NRCS helping financially with a pond - they were years out with waiting lists and it had to be a cattle pond - not a recreational pond. Another minus was all their rules you had to follow.

But for me they did come out and design the pond - flagged the waterline, set heights for primary and emergency spillway, pipe diameter, cubic yards in dam, etc. That was a big help at no cost to me. I don't think all counties (Missouri) can do that - even before the 'rona bug.

My guys came out right after I dug the test holes. He brought out his soils guy also. They programmed how big the pond could potentially be. Then told me my soil was perfect, but I didn’t have enough drainage to fill it.
They also mentioned if I wanted $$ assistance the pond needed to be for erosion control, which means it had to be in one of our bean fields. Plus they had to have access to it. So,, as it turns out, my soil wasn’t all that good, I have plenty of drainage, I received no assistance because I wanted the pond in the woods. But they were really nice guys.

I have built a few erosion control ponds for the NRCS programs and also cattle feeding ponds which basically mean they have to have a waterline coming thru the base of the dam for cattle watering which is no big deal if you wind up never watering cattle, but they have to be fenced, my experience was all the red tape and overbuilding you have to do for them to share a percentage of the cost, your out of pocket cost is not that much more to just have it built on your own, they want astronomical freeboard which means building a dam for an acre pond that winds up allowing 1/2 and acre of surface water with a 8 ft of free board. jmo

I had a similar NRCS experience. The only help they were was telling me my soil was good. The pond builder said it would be the same out out pocket whether I tried for cost share or not. Similar to what gehajake said, by the time you get done building it and jumping through red tape, might as well keep them out of your life.