my dad is trying to expand a old gravel pit by building a levee farther down a valley then letting it fill up and spill over into the old pit. but he is worried that his dirt on his levee may not be good enough. i really pushed for him to get a packer but he said his track hoe would pack it good enough, now he is thinking he should have done different. So here is the question has anyone used the pond liner material in their levee? like you would when you core it by digging down below the bottom of the pond, and then putting the rubber liner running all the way around the levee. i know it will probably be expensive, but at this point he dont care. i think he just wants to be done with it

First off welcome to the forum!!! This is a great place to be. The experts will chime in soon. Says you are in lower Arkansas?? What part? Can you not find any clay down below the gravel? I know in our area we have a lot of really nice gravel. Multiple gravel pits within a few miles of my house, but once you get down into old pits we have some of the nicest clay...its almost white. Wish I could've found this site before we built our pond, it would have been a lot different, but it is what it is now. Again welcome!

I think it would work. Porter County Indiana NRCS sometimes recommends digging a trench all the way around a leaky pond, as deep as the pond is, and dropping a solid sheet of liner from bottom to top, encircling the pond.

While it doesn't "seal" the pond, it helps in minimizing the water egress in the pond.

In the case of the levee, I would make double durn sure that the water could NOT get under the liner and wash away soil.....

Local dam on a reservoir here has a narrow trench filled with concrete for the same end result. Assuming the concrete is re-enforced or specialized materials to prevent cracking. Not sure if that is cheaper or more expensive than a liner.