Hello,I'm new to this so please bare with me. I had a pond dug 2 1/2 years ago,it has filled up twice only to go bone dry both times. The pond is about 1/3 to 1/4 acre and about 15ft deep and my only water supply is runoff. My builder dug a core at 8 ft and carried water across the core, he also spread clay on the whole pond and packed it down. The pond is full now and seems to hold water good for about 2 days before I notice it going down again. I notice all around the edge of the pond the ground stays wet about 2ft from the edge,and I wonder if it could be soaking in the ground? Or maybe leaking somewhere else? How effective is bentonite clay when the pond is full or is there some other way to maybe seal the pond? any advice would be great thanks.

Welcome to Pond Boss, DWM! Glad you found us and hope that you can get answers to help you out.

At the risk of stating the obvious, yep, you've got a leak! The good news is probably that since it goes totally dry, it shouldn't be hard to work on the solution.

I don't know much about this topic, but it sounds like there is an issue perhaps right in the bottom of the pond since you say it goes totally dry. It may be a situation in which you need to have your pond builder come back and redo the bottom. It seems he ought to be willing to do so since he was paid for a pond and you don't yet have one.

Stick around and wait for input from some folks who actually know what they are talking about on this. I'm definitely not one of them! And consider posting some pictures so we have a better idea of what you have and what you are dealing with. It may also make sense to add an aerial view from Google maps or some such online resource so we can better visualize where your wet areas are and that sort of thing.

He had no luck with bentonite.

When you say he packed the clay, hopefully he used a sheepsfoot roller or a multi-tired pan scraper that was heaped full of dirt and run all over the area repeatedly.

If he used a bulldozer or othet tracked vehicle to pack the clay down, I'd wager that the clay isn't packed tight enough.

How did he pack it?

I would tend to get the builder involved again since it has never held water. To bad you didn't contact him the first time to start creating a track record. I would now take a picture with the date of it at full level. Then more as the water dissappears for further records/proof. Get him out there to see it full, and then later when empty.

Hello again and thanks. The pond was packed with a bobcat with rubber knob tracks and the builder has since went out of business, but I will try and contact him again. Is there anything I might could put in the pond with it full to try and seal it off? I haven't really tried anything like that yet and was just wondering.

That could well be the issue, DWM. No way can a Bobcat on tracks would provide the compressing force you need to really seal clay, again based on all I've read here over the years. With those sorts of practices, I suppose it's one possible explanation for why the guy went out of business. I'd definitely still try to run him down and ask him to come make it right, even if you need to rent the right equipment and have him run it for you at no additional cost.

Many people on here have tried different things to add to ponds over the years to get a leaky one to seal. The only permanent fix that I know of is to drain and compact properly. Many people have thrown lots of $$ at their ponds only to realize that they have to drain and compact the pond if they want it done right.

I know that isn't the answer you were looking for, but that is the answwer that experience has proven to work.

When a pond first fills up it's normal for the ground around the edges to stay wet for a while.

Are you sure it's going down this time?

Sometimes you can get by with less compacting if you have enough clay. My two contractors never used a sheep soot roller and I don't have issues.

I know it is not fair, but you may want to find someone in your area that knows how to build a pond and have him fix it. I ran way over on the cost of my last pond but finally found someone who knew what they were doing on the third try. I paid the first two guys and politely asked them to leave. My next pond will be built by the third guy. Unfortunately, the guy that build my oldest pond had retired and no one here had any experience in my area with a pond builder, so it was trial and error. As mentioned earlier, at least your pond dries completely up, so it may not be too expensive to get someone in with the right equipment to fix it. Sorry to hear about your problem, but it seems to happen way too often. Best of luck!

Cecil, with the clay that you have, you could make pottery!

Same story for us.

Absolutely! A may have already related this here, but a guy I know that leased farm ground in my area would not lease to the Amish. He said the clay soil when it got wet and heavy would kill a horse if it tried to plow it.

A pond going bone dry indicates to me that the leak is in the bottom. Generally leaky ponds drain down to the depth of the leak and then the water level stabilizes and loss of water subsides or at least slows down alot. This indicates that the leak is likely above the 'new' water level. To me going bone dry suggests the leak or one of the leaks is in the bottom.

I've got a 6' layer of clay covering over all my property, when I built my house you could see solid clay down to about 12' then topsoil then sand.. The geologist I had to have come out too tell me where to put my septic told me all the land in my area is like this from a glacier overturning all the land and basically burying all the good topsoil under blue clay.. My house is 2-3yrs old and I still have huge clay baren spots where nothing will grow not even weeds.. Kinda sucks but my pond don't leak a drop lol..

Sadly, I agree with Scott (and Bill). I redid an old pond when I moved about a year ago. It started filing up (rain) before we compacted the bottom properly, so I just let it go and hoped for the best. Loser!! So I pumped it dry and redid the bottom and sides again. We recored the dam, and since we were in a long dry spell I had time to thoroughly go over the entire bottom and take out any broken big rock etc and repack the holes etc etc. I even drove my 4WD Subaru down it the pond and road around and around trying to pack it. We got two big rains and its about 20% full, but still leaks! Neither time did I use a sheep's foot. Right now I lose about 500 gals/day, and will probably let it go for a while and then pump the it dry and start over. This time I'll use a sheep's foot.
Like Bill mentioned, the leak is probably in the bottom, but I'm going to let it go for a while and see if it stops before we get to the bottom...

Hey Thanks for all the suggestions! Was able to talk to the guy that built the pond and he is willing to help me anyway he can to fix it. By the way what's a sheep foot?

Dirt compacting tool.. Google it

There are tow behind single and double barrel sheeps foot rollers and self propelled sheepsfoot compactors. They also make a vibratory sheepsfoot compactors. If you want to compact dirt the sheepsfoot is the tool to use.
http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=607808&x=7

Advice from an equipment operator: "If you use the sheepsfoot in combination with a grader be sure the grader operator just trickles material into the holes but doesn't do any cutting. The foot then compacts the material in the holes and gets your compaction up much more easily. Have harsh words with the operator who cuts the surface of your compacted area!"

See this discussion about compacting dirt.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=283471

Question I just constructed a one acre pond , after a long dry summer the pond started to fill
On September 18 th we got 2 3/4" of rain over night and the pond filled about 3/4 of the way
Now it' hasn't been they wet/snowey of a winter and the level raises up about a foot or so then dropes down right now if we don't get rain for 2 weeks or so it drops 4-6" under the ice
I did not compact the bottom of the pond but I did rake in 18 ton of Sodium bentionate

My question is would my clay soil along with the sodium bentonite self seal the pond bottom or should it have been compacted

Another question I have is....... When a new pond is constructed is it normal for the soft ground to absorb water

This is driving me crazy watching the weather reports I'm a impatient person to begin with
You can watch some of my YouTube videos if you like to better understand my pond

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OvRJtvMtp5M

It should have been compacted, but hindsight is 20/20. Not only should the bottom be compacted, but the sides up to and slightly above where the water line will be should be compacted as well.

It's normal for the ground to adsorb water in a new pond until the ground become saturated. It's also possible for the saturated ground to wick water away from the pond to an area that is more porous, letting the pond drain slowly.

If the pond fills and drains to a dertain level all the time, then I'd look for a porous area at or above the water level.

The other possibility is that the water level in the pond, when higher, creates more pressure on the pond bottom, pushing water out of a porous area. Once the level drops, the pressure is reduced, and the leak stops.