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Hello everyone, Bob here from Central PA (West of State College just north of I-80). This is my first post, and I'm just looking for some thoughts from everyone. Above is a picture of some property I just bought. My wife and I bought the property within the redoutline in the pic. In total it's about 2.1 acres. The property to the north of me has a pond that is outlined in the light blue color that is fed by a small creek that outlines to east side of my property. In the future I would like to build a house on this property (which will be somewhere around where the yellow box is) as well as put a pond on my property. There is a large dark blue shape on my property. This shows where I would ideally place the pond. Part of the dark blue pond has slanted lines in it -- this designates an area of my property that has been soggy ever since I've been interested in this property. I believe there is a spring underneath that could contribute to any future pond I would have. Would this pose any sort of problem during pond construction? I know it's probably a case-by-case basis but any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also considering purchasing the property to the north (with the pond) and to the west (cleared area) so the house location might change, but the pond will probably be in the same vicinity.

Also, there is a Zetts Fish Hatchery about 10 minutes from me that would be able to stock any fish I would need. Has anyone worked with the PA branch of Zetts? I've heard there's a location in WV or VA but I'm not sure if they're related or not.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum Bob! An expert will be along shortly to help you with your questions. You have a nice looking piece of property there. What I've been told and read, about springs, is that they can "be a faucet or a drain". So might be great, might be bad. And might not know until you actually get down there, unfortunately.

Yep, a spring can give or take. It depends on the water table which can vary with the seasons.

Welcome to Pond Boss from another Pennsylvanian.

Zett's should work fine for you, especially if there are no fish existing in a pond before stocking as I believe they mainly sell fingerlings. Also, I don't think they deliver so being close is good for you.

The spring is a mixed bag. It could flow in, or worse, it could flow out.

Great, thanks for the info guys. Is there any way I would be able to figure out if there would ever be drainage from it? Obviously one way would be to watch the grass in that area and see if it ever dries up, but would I be able to come to any conclusions based on the water height from the pond to the north?

Perhaps one way of getting around this would be incorporating the small creek on the west line of my property into the pond.

Many times, a marshy area will stay moist all year, but the amount of water will never be enough to fill a pond.

There are calculations for how much area of water run-off you need to fill a pond.

If the creek flows all year long, using it to some degree could be the right way to go.

Thanks, Sunil. I will keep an eye on that creek this summer and see if that is an option. I guess that's the good thing about not planning on starting this project for at least a couple years.