Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Then & Now Pics...........

Oh man that's not pretty sorry to see that

Sorry to see these photos. Time to kill off the remaining fish population, add some depth and structure if you want, and consider your next fishery plans for Spring.

Consider a punching a well...it's great for peace of mind. Mine pumps 50 GPM and keeps five ponds in good shape [four .3 micros and a 3 acre], even during this drought in NE. Your pond looks like .5 - 1 acre - even a modest flow should keep it topped off easily. Best money I ever spent for my ponds.

Hi NE.KS [sorry, can't risk, "Hi Handsome" if I want to retain the shred of credibility I have on the forum]

I think it would be useful to contact neighbors and ask them what their experiencs are with well performance and who they used to punch their wells. Then, I'd call the well drillers and get their opinions on water availability. Seems a good place to start. I realize some areas differ greatly in groundwater availability...but if you go deep enough, I think generally there's more water to target.

In SE NE we average 29" of precipitation annually. So, the standard formula is it requires 33 acres of watershed to manage a 1 acre pond. That's a very rough rule, obviously, as pond depth, what the watershed vegetation consists of, etc. My point is, for a .5 acre pond, if our stats are similar, you'd need 17-20 acres of watershed to keep water levels managed.

I don't think dropping $10k on a 5 GPM well is necessarily a great idea - but again I'd spend some time researching with neighbors and local well drillers to get a better idea of what you're dealing with.
If you can access 15-20 GPM that, IMO, would be worth the effort of punching a well. Again, that's just how passionate I am about my ponds...not the right answer for everyone.

I take it you are on rural water for your home, then? Hate to see your pond dry up to nothing! What are your plans if a well is out of the cards? Will you deepen and start again?

I helped out a good friend of mine who is a well driller here in Indiana for a while and I talk to him several times about puting a well in for my pond. I will tell you this. You can't go by what your neighbors wells are at. It can change one place to the next here. Don't know if its because of the lay of the land or what??? I was wondering about one of the drive your own wells in and he told me it would probably be a waist of money. I do have a guy at work 3 miles south of me that put a well in a well for his house and he doesn't even need a pump to get the water to the pond it has a really good flow naturaly. And sorry to see your pond that low. I'm 3' plus but, after seeing your pictures I will start thanking my lucky stars.

If you don't punch a well doesn't mean you can't add some depth and remove the silt and hope for more seasonal precipitation. Long range forecasts say we should return to normal patterns over the next three years...if you believe in that stuff. I'm hopeful, anyway.

Remember, adding depth buys you a few more months during a drought...food for thought. Please keep us in the loop regarding your plans. I know some Nebraska well drillers...depending on how far South you are, I may be able to help you. I'm sure willing to in any manner I can...just holler!

If it only leaks when the pond is full, does it need to be recored?

I consider redoing an entire dam a pretty drastic step.

I've just looked at your previous posts. It seems to me that if the pond, now lower because of drought, is not currently leaking, your problem is not at the core.

I think I would try to find the porous spot that is allowing water to escape into the dam. Just recoring without figuring out why it only leaks at a certain level wouldn't, IMO, fix anything. Admittedly, the weight of the water does build increased pressure.

To me, a pond is nothing more than a container of water built of somewhat porous material. Water always looks for a place to escape impounding at the place of least resistance. If it were a bucket with a hole near the top, it would leak out the hole and run down the sides to the bottom. Redoing the bottom of the bucket wouldn't help.

You stated in a previous post that you have only clay; no rocks or sand. It is my opinion(and I could certainly be wrong) that you have an area of the dam that is porous. When the water drops below that level, the dam doesn't leak.

That's why it appears to me that recoring wouldn't work. However, to recore, you would have to dig out and redo the whole dam. Why not figure out the level that it stops leaking and look at the entire area just above that level and fix that? You might find that one area is porous and it extends down through the core. There's no real way to tell that.

If they buried them behind the dam they shouldn't be an issue.

One other thing. Although now might look like a good time to dig that area out, it might not be. The soil to be packed has to have some moisture to make it pack properly. During the summer, in my arid area, we often can't build ponds. The best mixture is about 60 percent clay and the rest dirt. And, it should be mixed in some way; especially when packing and rebuilding. 100% clay cracks when it is dry and can actually not seal quickly enough.

I have a large pond in Noble Oklahoma, 75 years old, about an acre, with a large dam, about 30 feet high, deepest spot in pond about 25 feet. Pond is now almost totally dry, had a fish kill about 2 years ago due to drought. Anyone experiencing this, and what have you done to correct?