Hi Read a lot of good information from here and now need some general opinions from people who know more than I do. I have a piece of property, of about 100 acres In Windsor NY. I am not surrounded by any agriculture or develoment. My property is all on a grade. I have a 6 acre field that over the years I have cleared and used for food plots and just growing things that I like to grow, especially pumpkins. I have struggled with water in this field for a long time and finally hired a contractor to come in and at the top of the field cut a swale from end to end. So the top of the field is about 400 ft wide and the swale goes from end to end and drains off to my creek on one side. This has solved my water problem in the field and I can finally get my tractor in the field before June. Even with the swale my field can get pretty soggy depending on the rainfall. The watershed above the field is about 80 acres and above that is a road. At one time I was considering building a cabin and had a soil survey done and basically have a small amount of topsoil before it turns to clay. I had to dig a 4 ft trench for a perc test. I have a full size backhoe and I struggled to get below the 4 ft mark becuase the clay is embedded with shale rock and just really hard to go any deeper. They indicated I would need a sand mound septic system. So for a few other reasons I dont have a cabin but a camper. The swale carrys all the surface water from the 80 acre watershed and has running water in it for most of the year, depending of course on the rainfall. Now somtimes it can be a trickle and sometimes it can be running pretty good. The water in that swale is very clear. During the middle of the summer it can and does run dry. So my wife, kids and grandkids all enjoy the property and we have talked about adding a small pond for awhile but have resisted thinking it may not work. Several properties around me have what appears to be successful ponds but I have also seen on the net ponds that turn into mud holes. I have tried to check with local companies that can build a pond and it seems that the few I talked to are more than happy to come and dig you a hole but dont seem to have the abilty to figiure out all the details in order to be successful. I believe I have a really good bottom of clay and a way to drain it, but my biggest concern is the water source. While the swale can be a source of water for a good part of the year ( if that is appropriate), or am I going to need another source like ground water. I have downloaded the USDA book I found referenced from this site and am aware of the NRC. The USDA book is great and has a lot of great detailed information. However, before doing all that lenghty investigative work, I was just looking for a general opinion as to my chances of having success at building a sustainable pond and not an eyesore mudhole. I would defintely do some test holes before proceeding just to see what happens. I understand that there are no guarantees but want to avoid doing something that was a recipe for failure from the beginning. Anyway sorry for the lengthy description but I thought more would be better than not enough. Any and all opinions welcome. Thanks Alan
Let's see what others have to say. If you are able to post any pictures, it would help.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
IMO capturing most of the run-off from an 80 acre watershed will be more water than you need for your pond. (Look at p.10 of your USDA Handbook. You need about 3 acres of watershed per surface acre of pond; even though the guide says acre-feet)
Most mudholes look that way because they are too shallow, or livestock have direct access to the pond.
I think getting your pond deep enough may be your biggest challenge. Have you tried any test pits at the bottom of your slope? You need to find an area that has good clay, but hopefully you can get a little deeper before you hit the shale.
However, even if you hit shale, that is not an insurmountable problem as long as you have some good clay. One solution would be to have a dozer push downhill across your pond site and slot doze a big berm at the downslope edge of the pond. (Dozers are VERY efficient in that scenario.)
Excavate your pond bowl and shape as desired and scrape clean the underlying shale. (Be prepared to be flexible on your final shape, better to incorporate any shale knobs and valleys rather than spend time and money to beat them into submission.)
After the pond is close to final configuration, have the dozer push clay down the slope to build a 6" layer across all of the shale exposed in the bottom and sides of the pond excavation. Wet the clay to optimal levels and then run a compactor across all of the clay blanket, plus the slope of your clay berm. Then repeat the process again with another 6" lift of clay. In total, a blanket on the bottom and sides of compacted clay one foot thick should readily seal your pond to a depth of 10'.
Even if you could only excavate to a depth of 4-5', you can use the berm to build the pond water level significantly above the original grade to reach your desired depth.
You might also need to build a small "dam" at the creek end of your swale. You may need the swale to stay full for several days at a time to keep your pond amply supplied with water. You would just need a water supply line to your pond and an emergency outlet at a higher elevation on your swale dam so that big rains do get diverted to the creek, rather than eroding cuts into your swale.
Just throwing out some rough ideas as you contemplate a better plan with your eyes on the actual ground of the project.
Good luck on your new pond project!
P.S. If you do get heavy equipment on the property for a pond, you might go ahead and do the excavation for a septic system at your preferred site for a cabin or house. A cabin on a rural property with a nice pond would probably give you a large increase in property value if you ever need to sell - or just live there!
best 2 pics I have looking down the field. First one is older one. Second one is after the swale was cut. Excuse the tractor just restored it and wanted to get a pic of it before it got dirtied up Thanks Alan
