Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Planning it out (LOTS of pictures)

I've been browsing here for a week or so and decided i'd post some pics of our land and see what advice everybody has.

We recently purchased 3.03 acres to build a house on. It was covered with trees and brush from being clear cut 10 or so years ago. While the bulldozer man was clearing all the brush off he found that the Eastern side of the land was quite wet.

The longer line in the 2nd picture represents the location of the land line (about) and is the bottom of a 40 acre line running east/west. West is the bottom of the picture, East is the top. The line is about 1250 feet long. The property is located at 31 32 20.61 N 85 59 14.28 W just for reference.




We recently purchased 3.03 acres to build a house on. It was covered with trees and brush from being clear cut 10 or so years ago. While the bulldozer man was clearing all the brush off he found that the Eastern side of the land was quite wet.

His suggestion was to build a pond. He says it will help dry up the wet areas around the pond as well. It stays pretty muddy there all the time. i can't pick out a real starting point for the water other than it seems to come from under the road lol. The idea of a pond has been weighing on my mind pretty heavily since he mentioned it.

If i get him to build it, he wants me to rent an excavator (he doesn't have one). He wants the biggest one they have so that it goes quickly. It costed $2800 to rent it the last time they built a pond. He wouldn't actually be running it, it would be his son, who i work with. So payment for that labor would be between his son and I. I haven't really talked to his son about it very much yet.

I also talked to another man who lives about a 1/2 mile from the home site. He's retired and now does bulldozer and excavator work. He's got his own excavator and just dug a pond less a mile from the house. He's stopped by to chat several times and he would like to build me a pond too. He seems to think he could build it alot cheaper since he already has an excavator and i wouldn't have to drop $2800 on the rental.

Either way, i'm still several months away from actually starting this. We'll need to sell our current house before we can do this, but i'd like to know as much as i can about this BEFORE i get knee deep in this.

Now, the first 3 pictures are the area where i want the pond, you might be able to see how wet this area is in the pics. Especially the 3rd one, the white stripes near the tree line on the right are bulldozer tracks filled with water reflecting the sun. In these pictures, east is downward.




My idea of how to place the pond is drawn in the pic below. The road is the high side of the area, with the tree line being several feet lower. My estimate would be 8-10 lower? So clearly the dam would be along the tree line.

Now, for all my questions. The web soil survey indicates that the area for the pond is Orangeburg soil. From what i read on the description there, this isn't too a good place for a pond? Maybe i'm not understanding the info there very well. It stays very wet so to me that means it doesn't drain very well but according to the info there it should drain well? What do all the experts think? And what should i do next to plan for my pond?

Welcome to the Forum! You've got some good altitude for a lowlife!! I really like your aerial photos! Otto and others will help a lot with your questions. It's nice to see someone thinking ahead for their pond work. Too many of us found this great site AFTER we built problem ponds. You will definately want one of Bob Lusk's books--"A Perfect Pond-Want One?". Great pond info in it!

I know nothing of soils, but the first thing I wondered is if the pond draining your new property will be badly impacted from the soil runoff. You may want to get some grass and haybales out there in front of the culvert ASAP so the new neighbor doesn't get ticked off. You'll also want a pretty good set-back from your property lines and the roadway easement.

Again, welcome to the forum!

Howdy, lowlife, and welcome to the Forum.

You have the most road frontage I've ever heard of on a spaghetti ranch! As Rainman noted, ensuring vehicles don't accidentally get from the road to the pond will be important. At least you are on the inside of the curve.

Don't get in a hurry to hire an excavator, including your ground-clearing guy, to do a pond until you find some with pond experience.

Local info here or in 'Bama should have the low down on your soil's suitablity for ponds. Try your local NRCS office.

Looks like you have a neighbor just SW of you with a good sized pond there. If you have questions about the soil in the area you could pick his brain and find out what he found when that one was dug.

And, if recently, by whom.

Hello alabama_lowlife and welcome to Pond Boss. (That's a phrase I never thought I'd post on Pond Boss). We're glad you found us.

Thanks for jumping in, participiating on the forum and posting photos.



There is a reason that Theo is suggesting this. Any dirt mover can dig a hole. Excavating a pond requires a special skill set. Thought must be given to how the water will move through the pond, planned elevation changes for fish habitat, the slope of the shore line, etc. IMHO you will be happier in the long run use an individual that has created successful ponds in the past to create your pond.

Good advice above. I will add - Use a post hole digger and do some test holes to see if the soil will hold water.

Thanks for all the replies

The pond across the street is uphill from our place, the run-off from our place goes through the woods and eventually to a large creek. it doesn't show up very well in the photos but in the first picture, there is a bridge just to the left of the intersection, that's where the creek is. and honestly, it doesn't seem to be doing much running lol. it's puddling up more than anything

the pond across the street has been there since AT LEAST 1992 according to google earth. pretty nice looking pond from what i've seen. my buddy got rights to it when he purchased 5 acres across the road so i need to go fish in it sometime.

i'm in no hurry to hire anybody yet. i've searched on here for alabama and have been reading "anna's" thread about her pond, from what i can gather she's not too terribly far from me. maybe an hour drive or so? so i'd like to see how her project turns out and maybe talk to her contractor too.

Should i wait until the ground is somewhat dry before i try the post hole diggers? it has been raining for 3 days so everything is saturated right now. i've read enough to gather that clay is good, right? i may dig a little this weekend and see if i can find some clay.

Theo, what's a spaghetti ranch? i've never heard that phrase before....and yes there is quite alot of road frontage lol

I'm new to this pond business, but I might suggest getting a topographic map of your property. Might help you (and the experts here) find out some important information before you begin.

after several minutes of searching i found a topographic map that was free. just to the left of the words "Lowry Mill" is the land.

lowlife
Welcome abord you will love this place.

You are heading in the right direction.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
Test holes--topo map-talk to ANNA- question the neighbor-ask questions on the forum.

Keep us posted

Well, i have news! I'm not sure what to make of the news though lol. I did go did some test holes at the new house. i drew some dots on a picture to represent about where i dug the holes.

The two holes on the left side of the pic are the ones with the highest elevation. i went through a foot and a half of top soil in each of these holes before hitting a sandy layer. At about 3 1/2 to 4 feet i finally hit clay. it took a long time to get that deep because once i got to the sand layer water began running into the holes causing the sand to collapse. When i left to come home, these holes were filled with water. the one closest to the road was about 1 foot deep from the top to the water. The second hole was about 8 inches.

The hole closest to the top of the pic was the one at the lowest elevation. The arrow pointing to the right is pointing at the location where all the water is collecting. the arrow pointing up is the general direction of where the water seems to be headed...maybe a little more towards the right though. There is no real stream bed or anything, there is just a large soggy area in the woods around the puddle. This hole went pretty much the same as the first two as far as the soil i encountered. i didn't think i would EVER hit clay but i eventually saw just enough orange come from the tip of the diggers that i gave up lol. it was around 4+ feet deep. it was pretty soupy but didn't seem to fill up as much as the top 2 holes.

The last hole i dug was the one in the bottom right corner. It was about in the area i would expect the dam to run. After about a foot i hit a sand/clay mix that continued to about 3 feet deep and i hit a layer of gray clay. there was water in this hole but it was at least 2 1/2 to 3 feet from the top of the hole.

I'm not sure what to make of the water, and i don't think i can read anything into it at this point because it has rained alot this week.

I also saw the son of the owner of the pond across the road. I asked him about the pond and he said that several years ago, his father (deceased) made a deal with the county. The county needed some dirt for the road bed so he gave them dirt in exchange for the county digging the pond. He recommended i talk to another of my new neighors who is going to build a pond in the spillway of the pond across the road. If you look at the first picture i posted, there is a very large field to the left of the pond, it will be somewhere in that field....close to the woods. He is one of the guys i talked to about clearing my land. He is digging his own pond, i'm not certain how much pond building experience he has. I expect it's about the same as the other guys. There are alot of people around who do dirt work and most dig ponds was well....i'm not sure how many, if any, of them do it by the book though. Although the other neighbor that he had the guy from the conservation office out to look at his pond site. He also said that permits are required.

I ordered a copy of Perfect Pond...Want One?

Talk to your local NRCS agent at the USDA office. They will give you a list of qualified pond builders and often will even supervise the construction. The services are taxpayer supported, pretty good, and cost you nothing.

Rainman, in my area, they don't have to be qualified pond builders. All they have to do is ask to be on the list. NRCS will not recommend one over the other. It might be different in other places.

In this county of Indiana, I'd be better off getting information on how to dig my pond from my neighbor. The NCRS didn't help at all, I'm unsure what they actually do for this county. Now, if I were to live in Porter county (2 counties to the West of me) the NCRS there puts on pond building seminars in conjunction with a landscaping company, and they are very helpful and involved with pond building in their county. Too bad they are limited by the county lines.

My experience with NRCS is pretty much what DD1 described. The only thing the agent would tell me was that the list was in alphabetical order and that he would not give any recommendations. After my asking a few more questions however he volunteered that he would give me a yes or no answer to whether they had successfully completed any projects with the excavators on the list if I had particular interest in any of them.

Dave, I agree. I had to ask my agent point blank if he would consider the people on the list to do work on his own pond. That he could and did answer. You just need to form the question properly to give a way out. FWIW, complaints on lazy a** NRCS agents DO get action. There are plenty of good agents available to the NRCS.

Most are over worked and under payed.