Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? 4 year old pond won't seal

Hello all, I am in east central IL. where there is sandy black dirt for about 2-3 foot and then all clay from there on down. I had my 1 acre pond dug 4 years ago. It is 3-4 feet on the shallow side, and goes down to 15 feet on the deep end. It is not spring feed, has no underground springs. Only gets what washes down. My problem is that is looses water down to the "clay line" (looses 3-4 feet) in a matter of weeks. Its done this every year, all year. Heavy rainy season will fill it up, but then to just watch it lower in the weeks ahead.

Now, My contractor(novice at the time) admits to a few faults...

#1- When he excavated, we had 4" clay field tiles crossing through areas in the pond that he did not seal. At the time of excavation, they were "feeding in" and he thought, cool... "feed in"... But, they were about 3-4 foot down under grade. Of course now we see when water gets to grade(3-4 foot above tiles) the pond water goes out the field tiles. He is very good at "witching" for them and has hit every one outside the pond and plugged and sealed then all with clay... I think he has got them all.

#2- (I think is my present problem)
The sandy, black dirt that is above the clay line was not removed and filled with clay arond the ponds edge. And again, this dirt goes down about 3-4 feet before it turns to clay. And again, this goes along with my 3-4 foot water loss every time.

He is talking on making a "key way" (channel) around the outside of the pond, down to the clay line and filling and packing it in with clay up to the water line. This of course will be making a big mess around the entire pond that i am just getting the way i want it and landscaped. What a pain in the --- this will be.

I am for doing what ever it takes to keep this up to grade line. This is our pride and joy, and our little get away.

My question(s) is this...
#1- sounds like this will work, but whats you all's thoughts on it?
#2- is there any other way to get that top layer sealed?

Thank you all much for your site here and all your thoughts and input will be greatly appreciated and absorbed. Brad-n-Pam

Welcome to the forum pondering!

It's not real surprising the black sandy soil is wicking the water. My guess is that keying will work, and may be the easiest solution if you still have some good clay on site.

Is the pond on flat land? If so, the sandy soil will have to be keyed all the way around. If the pond is on a gentle slope, you may get away with keying the sandy soil just on the low side(s).

Putting a keyway around the pond, going down maybe 3-4 feet into the clay layer and compacting it well with clay while refilling, should do the trick. This should have the bonus benefit of interdicting the 4" drain tiles (I had several 4" and 1 8" tile going through my main pond site before excavation) and completely eliminating them as a source of water loss.

My excavator fixed the leaks on a pond 1/2 mile from me (which he did not originally build) by keying in this manner. Much as bobad noted, this pond was on enough slope that Excavatin' Ernie only had to key the downhill side. I drive past that pond every day on the way to work; before keying, it would typically drop 4-5 feet every Summer, while now, I have not noticed it down significantly farther than my own ponds drop (from mostly just evaporation).

Yeah, you'll make a mess around the pond, but then it'll be fixed and you will have use of the full pool all year (less minor evaporation loss, hopefully). Since your excavator now knows he could have done better, perhaps you can guilt him into some price reduction for the repair?

P.S. Howdy!

Hi Brad-n-Pam, welcome to Pond Boss. We're glad you found us.

Howdy Theo and all. Thank you for all your input, helps ease my mind on all this. And yes on the key way helping on the field tiles too... this insures we got them all, plus nips them closer to the waters edge. And Theo, my excavator (contractor) plugged all the tiles at n/c, and he is doing the key way for free as well. He is a good man and stands behind what he does. And again, he was a novice at the time, I was actually his 1st client(as if you could'nt tell :-)... All i will need to do after all this is buy and plant grass seed again. Thank you all again and have a great sunday, Brad

please educate the ignorant (me). what are the drain tiles that you all are referring to during construction?

Drainage pipes, originally constructed from short ceramic tile sections but currently utilizing slotted plastic pipe, buried a couple of feet or so underground to drain off excess water from farm land.

Everyone has to learn sometime and it sounds like your excavater is doing a good job on his reputation and takes pride in his work----VERY good qualities!

That is correct Theo, they were the orange/red clay style tile and we had about 4 seperate lines that he hit when excavating. This ment 8 areas outside the pond that he plugged/capped and filled around area with natural clay and compacted in. But i still worry about the joints in the tile between the capped area and the pond. He capped them about 10-15 feet away from the pond... But again, when he comes back to do the key way of clay, this should be closer and will seal all elements.

He's a good man Rainman like you said. I lucked out on that aspect... Now-a-Days those type seem to be fewer and far beteen. And of course the durned economy dont help it out either. He will have alot of time and fuel in the fix.

pondering

Welcome to the forum.
All ponds leak some, you are lucky that yours is Ont that can be worked on.
Most of the time it is just poor soils.
With the tiles caped what will happen to the water that get into the pipe?

Otto

Hi Otto, the old field tiles will just be draning out their other ends/+/or at thier joints at each of thier section. They are 1-2 foot solid clay tile sections, they are just loose (non sealed) flange joints that butt into each other and laid inplace and help the "soaked" farm ground drain. Water can soak "in and out" of the joints and out open end at the other side.

Thanks