Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Limited vehicle access?

Our neighborhood has a murky 3 acre lake with limited vehicle access. I can't attach a picture just yet (on vacation), but you can see a satellite view of the lake by going to Yahoo maps or another map site and looking for "Garrett Creek Drive and Orchard Glen Drive, Midland, Georgia". The lake is just north of that intersection.

About all we have for vehicle access (unless we go through someone's yard) is a 4 foot wide by 50 foot long sidewalk leading to the lake path with about a 6 inch high curb at the street. The sidewalk has strips of grass along the sides of it.

Does anyone have advice on how to get what may be tons of gypsum or limestone to the lake without damaging the sidewalk or the grass?

If the sidewalk is solidly paved and 4' wide, could something like a gator or mule be used to haul middlin' sized loads in bags (or even loose) to the pond over it?

I think a gator or mule would work just fine. I don't know if the sidewalk could handle larger. There is a cracked section towards the end of the sidewalk, maybe from that end being a little unsupported due to erosion and someone driving a pickup accross it.

I was hoping to avoid bags and get a better deal buying truckloads. We'll have the same problem when it comes to re-graveling the dam path. Delivering the gypsum or limestone by truck would probably make dispersion in the lake a lot easier if the truck could disperse the product too.

I was wondering too if anyone might have had their lake done by pumping the product as a slurry. That might allow you to have the truck on the road and pump the product to the lake. The lake is about 100 feet from the road.

The lesson learned is to plan for heavy vehicle access

Call these guys http://www.agflight.com/

No, you silly, I need a helicopter!

What about going through someone's yard? All you need is one cooperative neighbor.

or vacationing neighbor.

This from a moderator. Shame Theo, shame.

LOL! You know, there are a couple of vacant homes for sale on the lake too...

I'll look into going through a neighbor's yard, with their permission of course. I was wanting to avoid that because I've seen trucks cause some awful ruts and other damage. I wouldn't want to ask that of someone else.

I was hoping limited access was common enough that businesses had ways around it. I'll call around and ask now that I'm home.

IMHO mixing a slurry and useing a pump sounds like a viable solution.If you used 2 pumps you could pump water up to the truck into your slurry tank and pump it right back to the lake/pond.Just a thought.

GW,

does your area of SW Georgia have the same clay we do in Midland? Do you have any advice for adding alum or gypsum as far as rates?

I've looked into adding gypsum to the soil to break up the clay before. If I recall correctly our type of clay does not respond well to gypsum for the purpose of breaking it up (due to the clay's low sodium content).

Gp, I tested my neighbor's cloudy water with a little drywall and it worked in that test. We never used gypsum though because the pond cleared on it's own. Maybe the aeration system had something to do with it...

We have two common types of clay here, the orange type and a blueish type that is used to make kitty litter. My pond is the blue type and I never had clarity problems.

GW,

I'd say we have the orange type of clay. South of here the soil is more sandy. I'd like to see the blueish clay.

Does your neighbor's pond have the same blueish clay?

I have a 2 liter bottle of pond water sitting now. It doesn't look too murky in the bottle and has a greenish tint. Too bad I'm color deficient in the brown/green/gray areas The pond is looking pretty good now. No algae that I can see and while sort of murky it is probably good for what is primarily a fishing pond. I heard we had a LOT of rain the past couple of weeks I've been gone.

My neighbor's pond is the orange clay. When I did the test with the drywall I used two bottles, one with, one without. That made it easy to see how much the drywall cleared it.

Thanks! Maybe we don't need alum or gypsum then if the lake will clear by itself. We do need to grass in the erosion on our dam though which is probably contributing to the murkiness.

We don't have an aerator yet.