Hello, I just had a question about who would be a good person to check my property near Bandera, tx. to see how expensive it would be to build a fishing pond. We have a small pond less than an acre but the damn washed out and would like to repair and expand. Area is pretty rocky and this may not be an ideal spot, but it has a small spring that runs during wet years and I believe we only had to dig about 100 feet to provide well for house next to pond, but that even gets low during dry years. Well can be diverted to pond per timer. Also looking for other suitable areas, but I don’t think there is anywhere that accumulates water such as a creek except for small spring mentioned. There are many underground springs that show during rains nearby. I am new to this and not sure if my property is a worthwhile site for a fishing pond. Appreciate any advice.

Pat, welcome to the frenzy! Someone from your area will chime in soon.

Contact your local NRCS office. They keep a list. Then check references very carefully.

Thanks for the replies...that gives me a lot more to work with. There are only a few companies that come up when you run a search on the net so that helps. If anyone has a specific reference for someone who does good work in that area or experiece dealing with Texas hill country terrain for pond building and how much it cost too work with rocky areas with limited soil...please chime in.

I called NCRS and they will contact me in a week or so. Hopefully I can get this worked out...just got my 6 weeks notice at work today so it looks like I will have some time off to get this done. Oh well, life goes on. Might as well enjoy it!!

Keep in mind that the dozer operators on the NRCS list are those that ask to be put on it. They may or may not know what they are doing. Also, the NRCS person may or may not be a pond person.

I need to renovate my 1/4 acre pond. The corner was included with successfully abscomed in1996, by my mother and sister. My fathe deeded it to me in 1994. Since the she and the new owner of my mothers house contaminated the water with greywater from their homes.. I can no longer fish, nor swim a medically needed item to prevent my being bound to a wheel chair. I have no other sources for swimming.. I tried unsuccessfully to puchase to property,aswell as unsucsessfull contacted the healthe dept.Can I drain the pond,creat a natural swimming pond and levee or dam of their section for their use.Otherwise a pool consultant only option is a 30,000$ inground pool.

Hello Birdlady and welcome to Pond Boss. Personally my advice would be to talk to an attorney and soon. I don't know whether or not you would want to sue family members but even if you don't you should find out what your rights are. Regulations regarding building dam and changing the flow of ground water varies from state to state.

Grey water or black water outlet is as far as I read/understand US laws/reulationes also strictly regulated.
Keep a dialoug with your neigbhor parallel with seeking legal advice, werry often the mutual understanding/setelement is the cheapest ($)fer all parts,how ever its often worth the ivestement to have a colicitor doing the talking for you, signaling I will go the long way if I have to.
In this country that will wery often give you the benefitt of a court ruling in your favour to have your legal costs cowerd by counterpart for trying to get a resoneable setteling out of the court/legal system (don't know if this aplye over there).

Birdlady, if the pond is drained, you will likely need to remove some bottom sediments to get the desired results. Plus, the source of the pollution must be stopped. Speaking as a pro, I think you need some hands-on advice from your home base. ewest, on this forum, might be able to offer some thoughts how to handle this.
My gut reaction is for you to build the swimming pool, if you can afford it. It can be designed and built for the specific reason. The pond will always be a pond.

Birdlady can you provide info on what is going on ? Do you own all the land around the pond ? Are they draining something into your pond ?