Hi all. It's been a while since I've posted on Pond Boss, so I can't remember the threads I contributed here when I last posted. Still, maybe I can fill you in and some of you will remember my plight.
I've been fighting a lake that leaks for years. We've tried all sorts of things. I've drained it, dug another core ditch in front of, and deeper, than the original one. We've plated some suspicious looking areas in the lake bed, and around the shore when the water is down, with good clay dirt, and reinforced the levee, which it probably three times the size it needs to be.
And in spite of it all, it still leaks. I've had several threads here about it. Some of you may remember it. We've slowed the leak down a lot, but eventually it still leaks down the same elevation and stays there.
I had a back hoe dig a little behind the levee recently and he hit some junky soil that was once the natural dirt. It has a thin band where the old grass was. A little deeper it's a band of that old blue gumbo kind of mud, and water is trickling all through there. Obviously there is water moving there. whether it is seeping down through a soft or sandy spot in the lake bed, or coming from natural seepage. Either way, water is moving about 6 feet deep from the back side of the dam, right up next to it. It's trickling steadily from the direction of the lake.
So we've now identified a new place where water is moving. Our next proposed move has been to dig a core ditch in the back. They think the core ditch on the levee, and the second core ditch in front of the levee, didn't get down deep enough. I watched both of them being dug, and I thought surely it was deep enough. I'm guessing they went down 15 feet, and they were in ideal clay soil. It was as solid as it could be, and no sign of moving water.
But now I think the guys doing the work currently may be right. They are totally convinced that "this" is "the" leak.
The fish have been stocked for several years and the lake has some nice fish, and I don't want to drain it. Even if we did, I don't think we could get the deep elevation on the front side like we could on the back side. We'd have to drain it completely and just plate the whole lakebed with clay dirt.
What they want to do is dig another core ditch just off the back of the levee, and go down about 20 feet. We are now going about 12 deep with a backhoe, and get below the blue mud to dry, hard, clay ground. We want to go even deeper than that.
We want to line the new core ditch with plastic, such as draping a thick piece of black visqueen on one wall and then back filling with clay dirt. We're not going to be able to dig a simple core ditch, because too much water is trickling in that one narrow layer, and would put water in the bottom of the ditch. We can't go very wide, since we are already so low, that any rain would fill it up. About the only thing we can do is dig a 4-8 foot wide core ditch, line the visqueen as we go, and cover it as we go. Thankfully, the distance is not too long before it rises rapidly to the hills on both sides, and the hard clay dirt. Due to the water tricking in, and no way to drain it, there is no way to get equipment into this proposed new core ditch to haul in and pack clay dirt. Thus, the idea for the visqueen.
We've tried everything else we know to try for years. I've gotten a world of suggestions here at Pond Boss. But, so far, this lake has baffled everyone.
I tried to give you plenty of detailed back ground info here. So, the question now is, have any of you had to resort to a new core ditch on the back side of a levee? And if so, how well do they work? What are your general ideas, thoughts, and suggestions on what I have outlined here? We are to the point now of either doing this, or just accepting the low elevation and enjoy it the best I can, or drain the whole thing and plate the entire lake bed.
I'm interested in any thoughts and experience on putting a core ditch on the back side, in order to get deeper than the core ditch at the bottom of the levee, and the one in front of the levee. I'm guessing water is seeping down in a sandy spot, and running under the existing core ditches. I'm hoping if we can get down deeper than all of that, that it will finally be like putting a stopper in a tub, and once the water back fills all the sandy and junky strata under the lake, that it will then fill normally and hold water.
OK guys...give it your best shot, because I'm running out of options.
Thanks!
Bill Lake
