Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Pond not holding water

I live about 20 minutes east of Brenham Texas. My 3/4 acre pond has not held water since the summer of 2010 when it went dry. The pond was first constructed in 89 and took several years to hold water. My father-in-law fed cows in it and also added a small amount of benonite and by 92 it held water until 2010.
In 2011 we had quite a bit of rain and it filled completely twice and within several weeks went dry. In August of 2012 I had a contractor add about 2 feet of good clay on dam and pond bottom. This Feb. 2013 I pumped water from my well for 4 weeks and it went up several feet but did not gain anymore height. I cut off flow to pond and it went dry again.
The contractor had a 300 horse tractor and pulled two huge hydraulic scrapers filled with clay to pack the clay. When it went dry the bottom is still rock hard. I have found no wet area around the dam. Should I try benonite or a pond liner? Very frustrating to say the least? Would greatly appreciate any advise you could give me.

Bentonite has received very mixed reviews here

I think most would recommend removal of old clay, possibly repacking dam core, and redoing clay liner in incremental lifts with good compaction ie sheepsfoot roller.

A synthetic liner is what I will be doing if I ever get a permit. My pond is going to be no larger than 1/3 acre. Cost wise for your pond you're looking at 10 k + and installation cost

Thats my 2 cents. im not an expert. You want to call mike Otto to get some expert advice and possibly an on site evaluation.

Dean. it seems that you ought to be able to see where the leak is. Obviously it is in the bottom since it goes completely dry. But where?

New here and I thought I'd give my 2 cents.

When it dried the last time did it have time for the clay liner to completely dry out? If so, the liner could have shrunk and formed cracks to enable water to permeate through. This is likely what happened during the first drought in 2010. Also, any chance that the clay used to line the pond was a dispersive clay? That's caused when the charge of the clay particles cause them to repel one another and they remain in solution, which could cause the liner to become weakened. You can test this by getting water in a 5 gallon bucket and letting it sit for a day or so, if the water continuously stays cloudy without settling, it's likely dispersive. If it settles and is relatively clear, then your probably good.

From what you said, the contractor put the liner in in August and it didn't fill until February when you pumped it. My guess is that was enough dry time for the liner to shrink crack and cause a leak.