Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations ESS-13

Has anyone had any experience with product or know someone who has?

Here are several threads on it:
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000044#000000

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000033#000000

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000011#000000

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000007#000004

We had a very bad experience with a leaking lake. New lake that was finished last year and would not fill. We looked into everything including ESS-13. I researched it and found it to be basically a surfactant and polymer. The basis of the fix is to allow soils to better mix and establish a more uniform distribution of partical size so that the effective pore size is reduced. The polymer acts to bind the soil together once mixed. This still requires having the right blend of clays and fine sand particles to work. At best it was deemed to be a way to slow the leak, not fix it.
Well, 1 year and 4200 truck loads of clay later, we have a sealed lake that is now 1/2 full after only 2 months of impounding water. IMHO, clay and a packer seem like the way to go.

WOW! 4200 Truck loads! Did I read that right? What size was the lake?

You heard it right. 4200 truck loads of clay. Luckily, the formation where we found clay with a low PI was only 2 miles away. Even that was rather expensive.
The lake is 35 acres and had holes to 40 foot depth. We had to regrade the bottom, spread and pack 2' or clay 6" at a time over 17 acres from 205'mean sea level to 227 man sea level. Took 4 months and several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The original engineering firm and the developer handled the cost.

I'll never complain about the cost of my ponds again!!

Unbelievable! I would love to find a engineering firm that will stand behind their work to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars!!!! Although I imagine the developer was the most liable!

I didn't think they made 6 figure mistakes to HAVE to stand behind.

You are right in saying that the developer stood for most of the cost. The developer is a large real estate development company traded on the New York exchange, so they have reputation to protect. Goes to show you what leverage you can get when someone has to protect the value of a trade name that has taken years to develop.
If interested, this same developer developes residential all over the South, with several in Texas. Their new thing is to build lake development s with lakes as primary draw.