We built a pond a year ago and due the drought it never got more than 2 feet of water in it before completely drying up. I had posted previously that when building the pond last year in the main basin they broke through the clay and a spring started seeping in. The forum advised that this was not a good thing so the contractor went back in and put 2 tons of betonite clay and additional clay over the spring. This summer it did dry up completely and there were giant cracks at the bottom of the pond. Over the past few weeks we have been delighted that we had 7-8 inches of rain. There are 2 ponds upstream of this larger one and they are near full now, so the next rain should send a lot of runoff to this larger pond.
The first 6 inches brought this new pond to a new high level, but receded about 2 inches within the next few days. After another 2 inches of rain, the pond came up a bit, but it is still below the highest level achieved following that big 6 inch rain a few weeks ago. It is stable now. My concern is that it may be leaking, so I called the contractor.
He told me that we have had such a small amount of rain over the past year that the ground in the area, including the clay at the dam, was acting as a giant sponge and was going to continue to wick up the water until the ground is saturated. This seems logical to me. Sound right to the forum? It just seemed odd that I have less volume of water at 8 inches of rain then when I had 6 inches! When this pond is full the entire valley should flood all the way back to the white house in the background and encompass about a 3 acre area. That's the plan, hopefully some day that will actually happen!
