Does anyone have experience with ESS-13 sealant applied to the water to seal a leaking pond. I live in PA, and dug a half acre pond. Has some stones and course soil but also a good amount of clay. It's losing water at about 1" per day. Will ESS-13 seal it?
I'm curious too.
I shudder to think what the shipping charges are to PA though.
Hope someone weighs in.
A couple of thoughts.
If it is a new pond, expect it to wick back in for the first year.
Second, one inch per day during the summer could be evaporation.
Water is coming in at the rate of 5-10 gal per minute and its still dropping, so I know its more than evaporation. It is a new pond (dug last fall) so maybe a little patience will solve the problem. Any comments?
I think the best way to quantify the possible/probable leak is to quit pumping.
Lets see, at 7.5 gals per minute, you are pumping approximately 10,800 gals per 24 hr period into a 1/2 acre that will be approximately 21,780 sq ft.
I just did the math and came up with some stupid answers that tells me I'm missing something. I gotta go to a meeting. Somebody do the math on this one. Eric or Theo?
Finishing Dave's Math...
1 gal is about .133680 cubic feet of water. With that in mind, you are losing roughly 13,577 gallons per day in addition to the 10,800 you are adding with the pump. That translates into roughly 24,377 gallons of loss per day. I know that new ponds will seem to leak until the soils get saturated, but having over 24,000 gallons disappear each day after 6-9 months is pretty excessive. Granted that some is evaporation, but there is most likely a leak there somewhere.
Could you stop pumping in the water and see where the water level settles? You would then be able to figure out where the leak might be and you could add the recommended 18-24 inches of compacted clay to the area.
ALK
Welcome to the site.
Have you stopped the water from coming in?
How much did the water fall, and did it stop at some level?
Don't spend any money yet. Lets see what it does.
OTTO
Thanks for the advice. Water is still coming in via a 3" pipe from a spring source. I'm still waiting to see if it continues to drop. It may take another year to let it settle really well to see what the final result will be. But I'm not spending for the ESS-13 yet. For my 1/2 acre pond the recommendation is 6 55 gal drums @ $825 per drum plus shipping to PA of about $1200. I can afford to wait a little for that kind of money.