Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site New 3 acre pond in Southern , IL

New to the site and new to pond building. We purchaed 20 acres in southern, IL 3 years ago and just recently finished building our house. The next step is to build a 3 acre pond.
I took the bush hog out and mowed where the pond will go. I have a really nice perfectly oval valley that can be dammed about 15 ft on one end and 5 on the other. I just shook hands with a local Pond builder and he is going to start bringing in his equipment next week. I have been creeping the forums off and on for a while now, but just got registered today.
My questions for fellow pond builders are this:

What do you wish you WOULD have done if you could do it over ?
Floating dock or stationary ?
How thick for sand beach ?
Should I put a drain in ? ( I am on the fence ) Seems like it it's just one more thing that can go wrong , I could always rent a pump if I needed to drain the water.
Should I put any PVC pipe in for future aerators or other projects ? ( considering doing a windmill aerator )
Does beach location matter ? As far as wind current is concerned... I saw someone say it was important otherwise you will end up with a trashy beach full of washup debri
Just want to do what I can before the pond gets water in it.

Future goals of the pond:


Zipline
Fishing
Swimming.
Waterfall feature next to swimming area.
Pavilion next to beach

Any advice is welcome! Thanks

Welcome to PB Tacker! Do we have time to give you input and answer your questions? If the deal is done and the equipment is moving in then we should just pat you on the back and say keep us posted!

If we give you lots of advise and ideas, you may have to call off the trackhoes and give it some thought again.

What is your soil like?
How does the dirt man propose to seal the bottom?
Did he discuss with you how the core of the dam will be created?
Will you have a pipe through the bottom of the dam?
What is the design of your spillway?
What bottom features are the excavators building into the bottom of the pond to help meet your goals for aeration, fish highways, avoiding winter kills, and for swimming?
What plans do you ahve for structure for the portion of the pond that you hope to fish in?

You certainly have time to plan your pavilion, docks, beach sand and other amenities later after the pond is filling.


The aeration can be done later (especially since I don't think anyone will be excited about windmill aeration in a 3 acre pond if you can in any way bring power or air down to the pond from the house or outbuilding and use bottom aeration).

My bias, and the bias of many on this forum is that 2 or 3 smaller ponds, or 1 large, and a few smaller ponds gives much more flexibility, a place to raise forage, and is easier on the budget for management.

As I raked the algae out of my tiny puddle on Saturday I was very thankful my shoreline did not cover 3 acres of surface area

excavator plans to start Mid august. He is willing to accommodate any trenches or ledges I want. I told him I wanted the edges to be fairly steep to try to keep muck away from the sides. The beach area will be a little more gradual. I will try to get a picture of the pond area later today to upload.

Soil is old farm land with about 12" of top soil and then clay. The builder is going to use the clay to seal the pond. He said he will be using a pan truck a dozer and his track hoe.

The core of the dam will be built with clay with a layer of topsoil on the outside for seeding grass the dam will be 85 yards long approx and will be a straight shot .

It will be mostly bowl shaped with a couple of requested ledges to hold some rock. I was going to place a couple of large roots and some trees that I have cut down in the bottom. Along with some 2" pvc pipe bundles weighted down.

Its my understanding the spillway will have a pipe coming cup through the dam on the edge and will overflow out under the dam and into a ditch that eventually leads to a stream ( 50ft away )

[/URL]

We have decided to do a 24" Corrugated Culvert overflow with a emergency spillway trench. The Culvert will have a 5'x5' anti-seep collar.

I am not going to do a drain.

Welcome Tacker, Here are a few more questions. Where is the water coming from? If it's rain runoff how many acres will feed it? I'm picturing high ground all the way around the pond and no water coming in. I believe we are seeing water in your low area, is that always there? The worst case scenario is you dig a big hole with a puddle in it when it rains. Are there field tiles currently draining off water?

The construction of the pond and the water source are the two most important things to consider IMO. Everything else you mentioned can be decided (and changed) later.

Also every pond is different so there is a wait and see factor involved.

I have about 4 acres of run off as it is now. I could possibly divert a stream later if I needed to add additional flow.
We typically see a lot of rain in our area ( 48" per year ) . There are a lot of ponds nearby with little to no run-off and I have not see any of them dry up as of yet.

The Tree in the center of the photo stands 18' tall and is at the lowest point of the pond. The standing water that you see is a test hole I dug with my Front loader about 4 weeks ago. It is about 1-4' deep 20x20 - it filled up after one small rain and the level has not gone down at all