Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? No water in my central texas pond ?

Hi, I'm new to the forum and need a little advice. I bought some land out in the texas hill country (Burnet co)that has an 1/4 acre tank (pond)that does not hold any water. The previous owner said it held water many years ago but needs to be re-clayed. The land is typical hill country terrain, lots of wooded hills with limestone everywhere.

Help. Do I get bentonite trucked in? is there a contractor in the area I can contact to take a look?

Thanks

I've never heard of having to "reclay" a pond. Ask yourself where the old clay could go. Usually, they either leak or don't when they are built. I would be suspicious about it holding water for years.

Look at the pond when it rains and see if there is a noticeable place where the water goes. You might have to only fix it in one spot.

Bentonite has shown mixed results and can get pretty expensive. Two ft of well packed clay is generally all it takes to fix a bottom leak. Have it packed by a sheepsfoot roller, not a dozer.

Thanks. Not sure about the reclay idea myself but I'm at a loss. It's clearly a tank and was probably used to water livestock in the past. Unfortunately now, it's just a big empty hole in the ground. Wondering if there's a consultant in the area who can take a look.

Does it hold any water when it rains? We have some land where Lampasas and Coryell counties cross with some old stock 1/4 acre tanks - 1 is silted in and needs to be redug, 2 aren't in the watershed, but the last holds water fine. Are you getting water shed when it rains? How deep is the tank?

A good place to start is by getting some test holes dug to see if clay is available for a pond rebuild. Bentonite can work but the big problem with it is when the pond looses water to evaporation and is not kept full the bentonite seals crack and will then tend to leak. Thinner clay liners can also crack during droughts. The pond will probably have to be rebuilt and dug deeper if you want it to reliably hold water.

My place is not too far from Lampasas (Kempner). The tank is basically dug into the lower 1/4 of a very big hill so it's getting atleast some watershed. The bottom of the tank is full of soil and green grass but the walls are all gravel/sand/big chunks of Texas limestone rock.

Bill,

I'm new to all of this. Who do I call to get the test holes dug?

We're probably within 15-20 miles or so of each other. Our property is north of Lampasas and south of Evant. Your stock tank is similar to one of ours (one of our dry ones). Is there any chance you have clay somewhere on your property to seal the tank properly? I noticed that with one of our tanks, it looks like they dug it out and then tried laying a thin "skim coat" of clay (optimists??) so it makes sense to me why you were told that your tank needed to be re-clayed. I don't know if it worked initially but with the drought and all, our tank is in really bad shape (will need to be redone properly). Also, you may want to check with

http://acme.com/planimeter/

and check the topography map to confirm that you are capturing all the runoff. When I checked our land, the water was indeed running down the hill but it jogged due south of the tank! If you're going to have work done anyway and the funds are available (and depending on the topo), you may want/need to have some regrading done at the same time so that you can capture all of the runoff possible. When you say that you have soil at the bottom of your tank, is it silt or ??? The guys here have been really helpful in teaching me about sediment/settling ponds, too.

Talked to the Ag Extension guy today. He said, it's a real unique area of the state and 4 out of 5 tanks have trouble holding water. Said my best bet is to get a liner installed (but that's also the most expensive). Next option is to have bentonite trucked in (bags of it will not be enough, needs to be truck load). Cheapest option is to find some clay somewhere on our land to apply to the tank floor and sides.

Bentonite really needs to be tilled into the bottom and it takes a lot of it.

It might work to till in some bentonite and then cover with well compacted clay.

I know that on our property, our soil ranges from cemented caliche to clay to silty loam (down by the pasture area) to pure rock and limestone - it just depends on the part of the property your on. Hopefully, you'll be able to find some good clay. The neighbor across the way has a 2+ acre pond that has held up well throughout the drought so it can be done. BTW, congratulations on your new home!

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I will first try to locate some clay on the property. If that doesn't work I will probably just buy a big rubber liner.

Had a contractor out this weekend. Basically he said he can see lots of clay at the bottom and none on the pond walls. He thinks the initial builder on the pond probably put a thin skim coat of clay on the walls and over time it all washed down to the bottom thus explaining why it no longer holds water. His solution is to slightly reshape the pond with a Dozer and install a pvc liner.