Looking for someone in the Seattle area who can assist with my pond. The only one I know of are the folks at Spring Creek in Oregon and they are a little too high scale for me.

The story is I finished the 1st building of an about 100' by 100' pond in April 05 and filled it Dec. 05 when the winter rains came. We hit gray clay on the bottom and the sides are a mix of what you would maybe call rocky hard pan and sand. If I walk around in the water on the edges I do not sink as it is vary hard. Anyway have filled it the last 3 winters and it leaks about 20,000 gallons a day when full and slows as it drains down, never enough to dry out in the summer. Stays close to half full but to the under half full side. Am going to drain it this summer and see if I can see what is going on. Maybe have to do more construction but money is tight.

Two sides are where the property falls off and for that we built a dam 15' to 20' thick at the top and going out at a 45 degree angle and we packed those in well. The other two sides are natural ground. During the peak of summer, before I filled it, on one of the natural sides and near the bottom of the pond I saw water seeping in and am wondering maybe the loss I am getting is just flowing back out that area rather than "silting" over in time as I thought the whole thing would do. As said it has been full to half full for almost 3 years and I think that is plenty of time to seal up "naturally".

Anyway, just found this site a few days ago and have been reading through a lot of the info but decided to start my own conversation and see if anyone could name someone close who might be able to see it for themselves after I drain it.

Thanks a bunch

Howdy, Jed, and welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have water leaking (in and) out through the sandy sides.

We have a couple of members in Washington state, and maybe someone else might know of a dirt guy around those parts. Hang in here.

Thanks for the reply

The sides are mostly a rocky hard pan with a bit of sand mixed in. Dam is 15 to 20' wide on the top, which makes it about 40' thick on the bottom, I would think it it were leaking through there at 20,000 a day when kept full, I would see it.

Thoughts?

Also, from reading this site see where I can send soil samples in and might but is there a guideline for digging perk holes?

hi jed, welcome to pondboss. i'm falling asleep at my computer so apologize up front for what may be an off target or abrupt response to yer questions...need to go to bed. most hardpans do transmit alot of water. thats how hardpans form to begin with in general. the water leaches through a soil horizon and deposits calcium or iron or silica or a combination thereof creating the hardpan.

test holes need to be dug to the (surveyed/estimated) depth of the pond site to both identify the soil types and identify on-site resources that may be useful to seal the pond.

clay is what you need to seal a pond, bottom and sides.

Jeb
20000 gal per day is a lot of water you should see that if it was going threw the dam.

rapid water loss when full then slowing down as the depth of the water goes down is standard.

a shovel is a good way to start digging holes, hand held post hole diggers will get you down 3 feet. Some hand held augers in the right conditions will go 10 feet, A back hoe is the easiest but now you are spending money.

Otto

Dig behind the dam along the bottom to see how much if any water is passing under the dam.This will tell where the water is going either under the dam or straight down.

Thanks for the input so far.

Was hoping the hard pan would reach a saturation point and just not take anymore.

We hit gray clay at the bottom but am not sure I can find enough available in the area to line all the sides at 100' x 100' and 10' deep.

Will a product like ESS-13 be the way to go? Keeping in mind the sides have many small rocks in it that you can never remove all of.

Also will dig some test holes and perk test and send some soil samples in.

Called Spring Creek a few years ago before starting to build and they gave me a list of things I would need to for the pond. One was clay but they mentioned a couple of other things. Maybe I can find that. Once I sent them a picture of my old place they seemed to lose interest in going much further. Think they want more high scale customers. It cost me about 20k to landscape the area, since I did it twice! The first time it was just too big and last summer we took the dam down 3 to 4', removed the island on the natural dide and it now blends in much better to my place and my neighbors place behind me. He has a seasonal pond below mine and I want to make it a year round one. It is not too big and testing ESS-13 on it might be an idea.

Old cars and junk out back just before I bought the place

Jeb
The pictures look great , the before and after shows how much work you have done. If you do something with the ess 13 keep me posted. Have not used ess 13 only talked to people who have.

Otto

Thanks, Where the old brown shop is with the white door is where I want to move the house to (house is blue roof behind the white garage) and rebuild it there and overlooking the pond. The old buildings to the right are my east neighbors and have plants in the ground that will eventually block the view of those from my yard.

Have a neighbor young man (17) who works with me and started with me on this pond when he ws 14. We were talking yesterday and are going to pump all the water out in 2 or 3 weeks. See if any of our fish are still alive, remove the fish habitats we put in (concrete block towers, a few tractor tires great big rocks and such). Dig water leeching test holes, send some soil in for testing. Clean the sides of the pond as best as we can. Then decide over the next couple of months if we should bring in clay, peat and such for sealing better or go with something like ESS-13. Then hopefully fill it in Dec/Jan and not have it leak down anymore other than evaporation!

Keep all of you posted and please if you know of someone local who can set me straight, let me know.

Jed

Jed

Have you got the pump running.
OTTO

Not yet, most likely pump it out in late May, early June due to travel for job conflicts.

Well here it is over a year later and have still not sealed the pond....Keep in mind I am gone about half the year for my job so time and projects get away from me.

Anyway, filled it in the winter of 05/06 and all is about the same. When full in the winter the pond loses about 3 inches a day then slows down to 1/2 to 1 inch a day as it leaks down.

Regardless it is still fun to have. Just came inside from watching a mamma mallard with her little ones. And of course the barn swallows swoop around it all day.

Have just about decided to try DB-100 on sealing it up and meant to call them today. Will let everyone know if it works if I use it but have got to do something soon.

We had an unusual heavy rain in early May. I was home to take advantage and did a final top off of pond with my trash pump. Take the water from my neighbors small pond that is fed by a seasonal stream of water.

Here is a photo of it when full. The overflow is just out of the picture on the right.

Wow...what an absolutely pristine and natural setting. The irregular shoreline and all...textbook. V nice Jed58.

Thanks....Just to the left in this photo I have some fairly trashy neighbors but have bushes planted that will block them out completely in another couple of years. Need to start planting some things around the pond now....Have put more money into the hole digging than I care to think about but the dirt hauled out/pushed helped out the neighbor on my right (he also owns the property in the back of the pond) and I do enjoy the wildlife the pond attracts. Even get a bald eagle to stop in from time to time......We pitched a few blue gill in and they are doing well and having little ones. Every so often an Osprey swoops in and gets one. Is beautiful to watch.

Very nice. I really like the boulders along the shore line.

Very nice.Have you considered a liner to fix your leak?

Thanks Jeff and Tom.....The boulders were in the ground where we dug of course, so it is a law you have to use them on the sides....The Robins perch on them in search of food.

Tom, the cost of a liner is just too much and too much trouble. Am hoping the DB wil do the job, or cat litter or something....Calling the folks at DB right now

This barn used to be just up the hill and to the right of my pond but it was allowed to rot away and fell down a few years ago.....Sure want to get this pond issue resolved



The barn was in the lower left of this photo. You can see the first design of the pond in the middle right. It was a stupid way to do it and of course had to break out the wallet and do it over. Was kind of costly but new way looks "natural", this way did not.....A house has nothing on a pond on being a money pit.

Beautiful place Jed.

Buy a boat...