Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Thinking of constructing a 1/2 acre pond

Hello.. First post and I am glad I found this forum.

I live in Northeast PA and have 2.3 acres with a house. It is all farm field with a slight slope. It is located at the bottom of a mountain and have a source of fresh water that runs through my sister's property, under a road pipe and into a tail ditch. The flow is constant thru the spring, early and mid summer. Later summer there is some slow down, but it will run for a couple days after a day of rain.

I have photos and video on Photobucket. http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh88/pjb153/pond_spring/

I was hoping I can get some answers as to if a pond is suitable and what it may look like when constructed.

Thanks.. for the help in advance.. I am sure there will be alot of questions for me to answer.

pjb153, welcome to the pond boss forum, you have a real nice piece of property and I'm sure a pond would look great there.
I have a pond in the Adirondacks, but I'm not an expert so someone should be along later to give you more info and ask the important questions, it's kind of slow now but more people will be on tonight.
What area of pennsy is your property?

I am just outside of Scranton PA, very close to the poconos.

Yea pj, use to travel to the waymart area when I was a kid, my mother grew up there, we lived in jersey but would visit her friends and relatives there.
Nice area with mountains and valley towns.
Hang on, you should get some pond info later.

Small world.. I live about 15 min from Waymart in Mt Cobb. We are on the outer end close to South Canaan.

pj, since no one has replied yet I'll throw in my 2 cents.
The 2 main pond elements are money and water in that order. Try to locate someone locally who has some experience building ponds and have them look at your property and let them know what your goals are. There are so many variables when it comes to accessing cost due to soil type, this is where the money comes in, even if the ground is a sieve it can be sealed, or a liner can be put in.
It seems like you might have enough water with the spring there and runoff and that really is a big plus.
All this doesn't mean your pond will be expensive, your goals might determine that.
I didn't have much money to build my pond but I had a large gully that could be dammed and access to plenty of piped in water from a stream.
My contractor had built 4 ponds before, I told him how much money I had to spend, and he worked out a plan to build a pond within my budget. It cost less than $2500. because the area didn't need much excavating, just damming.

Get together with someone knowledgeable and see what you can work out.
Hope this helps, Good Luck.

Dang, your pond was a steal for $2500! I bet you think it was worth every penny you paid...

pjb, hand in there... Someone with more knowledge will be along. A lot of guys that know there stuff check in every couple of days. I have lots of family in PA.

pjb153
Welcome to the site. Glad you found us.

It looks like you have the makings of a good pond.
Like adirondack pond said there are a couple of things you need water, dirt, a plan and once you have the plan make a budget.

Think about what you want a year from now and keep in mind all land will sell someday. How big do you want the pond to be?
Are you going to build a house on the property?
The next step is; are you going to build the pond yourself or hire some help?

Look at the other ponds in the area are they holding water?
You will want to find out what is below the surface, A local dirt guy may be able to tell you this maybe the neighbors.

It looks like you have a great site for a pond do not get in to big of a hurry. Spend a little time on the plan.

Well my plan for now is to keep a log file of the water flow thru the spring and summer. If I can get good readings even in the dry periods, then I know I have the source there for the pond.

if I have the source, my next step is to dig some test holes to see what type of soil I am dealing with. If those two aspects look good, I will design the pond and shoot my grade.

Another thing i am going to look at is an old hand dug well on my property. It has been filled in with rocks, used to be used by a farmer. Maybe hire someone to dig core samples and punch down 20 ft to see if i hit water there.

thanks again for all of the tips and help so far.

Here is a quick topo taken from Google. You can see the other ponds and water ares around me.

pj, if your in a hurry you could always dig a small garden pond and put in some small fish and see how that goes until you collect all the data you need for your big pond.
Since you put a map up, why don't you put yourself on the PB big map.
http://platial.com/mapv/Pond-Boss-Forum/616118#