Well I'm another newbie wondering what I can or can't do. I have a small property with an existing pond covering about a quarter acre. I'd like to expand it on to another section of my property adding another quart acre in size. The existing pond is fed from an artesian spring and well. The property has a very high water table. If I dig down about three feet I hit water. So I'm not sure if that is good or bad. The existing pond will drop about two to three feet during the summer when the local ranchers start pumping from their wells to water grazing land that borders my property. I'd like to deepen my existing pond at the same time as adding to it. So I don't really know where to start.

The next question is there any Northern Nevada contractors that are familiar with the area that can assist or perhaps contract to build on to my pond expansion dreams? I'm in Carson City, in an area called Jack's Valley. I have no idea to the cost or budget for something like this. I don't know if it is easy two week job or a two month long job - or more? I don't think I need to go deeper than 8 to 10 feet as long as it is deep enough to be a home to bass, blue gill and/or cat fish. Or if not suitable for them, some other species.

Thanks, Dennis

Welcome to Pond Boss, Dennis! Glad you found the site! You'll get more great advice here than you can shake a stick at, so just stick around and wait for input to start rolling in!

I am by no means an expert, and didn't even have the luxury of staying at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I did read about a similar situation in a post here in the last few days. That thread discussed a high water table intersecting your pond and the fact that your depth, to some extent or another, will be impacted by how high or low the water table moves. Makes sense when you think about it and it seems you are seeing that effect already. As far as expanding, I guess there are a lot of factors that impact that sort of a move including soil composition and your water source. If Nevada is as dry as it seems to be (guess that also depends on your locality), you may not have enough rainfall to provide the surface runoff needed to fill the extra space. If you could somehow get below the water table with good clay or even a liner, you may be able to get the pond filled over time and then be fairly well set.

These are just some thinking-out-loud sorts of musings, and they are probably all off base, so hang on till a real expert shows up with some input for you!

Again, welcome. And please post some pics of your place!

Dennis, welcome to PB. We're pretty short on dozer drivers from Nevada around here. Hang on. Someone ought to show up.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm looking forward to hearing what I might be able to do with this high water table and the artesian spring/well. I was told my well pump is good for 20 gallons per minute. The pond extension isn't going to be too big that I hope I'll be able to supplement the natural water table/spring and keep the pond or ponds full during the summer. I just don't know if I dig a 8 foot deep pond that the water table will keep it full or if it will just drain out. So I'm looking forward to someone around here to add input. Call me clueless about this stuff.

One key number is that one acre of water, one inch deep, is 27,000 gallons. Your 20 gpm pump, if correct, will produce 28,800 gallons every 24 hours. You will have some evaporation but also some rain. Let's not worry about that stuff. So you want to have 1/2 acre and the water table is about 3 ft. from the top of the ground and also the top of the pond. You also will lose about 2 to 3 ft. during irrigating season.

Will it drain out? Yes, some of it will because a spring/aquifer both gives and takes from the water table.