Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam New Dam leakage-compacted soil?

I rebuilt an inline creek damn this summer and we THOUGHT we compacted it down pretty good with the large bulldozer......but it has some seapage coming out below the dam in two different spots. The dam dirt is pretty dry.., but its solid clay dirt. Im hoping when the rainy season hits in a few weeks...over the winter and spring it will seal up from the weight of the wet dirt. The dam size is about 20 feet wide at the top x 50 feet long. Its about 4 feet tall on average.

Has anyone had any experiences with this? Any luck? Any stories?

I cant really detect wear the leak is because I have a constant stream running into the pond.

Face, not enough info. It is normal for a dam to saturate and seal, at least I think.

One notable item, is that it was sealed with a dozer. While tens of thousands of ponds have been "walked in" with dozers, it normally is not as good a seal as a compactor/sheepsfoot roller or loaded dump truck. It may seal on it's own anyway, and again, this probably has been the method of compation of the vast majority of ponds.

You don't mention any water level loss. Is the pond going down? If not, I wouldn't worry to much, yet.

Good luck.

it's very hopeful that the leak will fix itself, they sometimes do, but its hard to say.

sounds like the dam was not keyed properly, and the hydraulic weight of pond water is pushing flow below the dam structure and out the other side. also, dry clay soils can leak exceptionally well because of shrinkage fractures. did you build the dam using the dry soil? its best to have moist clay soil (expanded clay) for better compaction.

.....explain in more detail how the dam was constructed, and explain what type of soil makes up the bottom surface of your pond.

Yeah my soil is so full of clay and Ive built other ponds on my property before with no other problems...I didn't bother going with the sheepsfoot compactor.

This is a spring fed pond....so the volume going into the pond and out of it isnt a constant. And the amount of water going into it...is almost the same amount leaking out of the dam. So its a tough call. I do gain some days, other days it stays the same. Its just started to rain around here hard. The water level IS right at the top..and when it rains hard and a lot of water is going into it....it will go over the spill way.

I really want it to go OVER the spillway because I have built a "waterfall spillway"

dave in el dorado....the soil from the dam is all clay. And its also was very dry when I built it this July. No I didn't add water as I was building it. Just moved it around dry....and drove over the top of it with a big bulldozer. No keyway was cut in it either. I did notice a couple 3 foot cracks in the top of the dam as it settled. Im thinking with the weight of the water and rain on it...it should settle more...and seal up. IM HOPING!

Face, dry clay won't compact anyway, for the most part. And dry clay will crack and leak til it seals.

It probably will seal over time. I don't think you told us when you finished your project. It may be brand new, for all we know, which would explain everything.

Oh yeah.......it was built this august. ITS BRAND NEW.

I had the same problem, w/ the exception mine was built with proper moisture content and then dried and split the dam in drought conditions before filling. IMHO dams should not be constructed of pure clay. Some topsoil needs to be mixed in to buffer expansion and contraction of the clay. I finally got the leaks fixed by hand filling and compacting individual cracks,patching from backside of dam and just waiting on mother nature on the last leak.