Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Weird rusty orange goop in new pond?

I just dug a pond. I hit this orange rusty stuff that comes out of the ground? It has a slight oiley sheen on the water sometimes, but it looks like rusty baby poop dumplings floating in my new pond? It's now starting to settle.

Any ideas what this stuff is? Is it rusty iron? Is that how it comes out of the ground?

what type of soil did it emanate from? sounds like you either hit a vein of iron rich groundwater (underground spring if you will), or simply hit your water table which is supersaturated with iron. it does sound like a ferric iron rich substance. there are iron bacteria that form a jelly like substance around water well intakes thats called iron fouling, i've never heard of it just spring out of the ground though. the oily sheen can be iron as well, we see that here in hard water areas, a good water softener will take care of that for household uses, probably you'll want to monitor your pond water chemistry and make sure its ok for fish.

Thanks for the info. Yeah, Its now spewing out...like I just struck oil. Its just slowly oozing out. I think its that iron bacteria. The stuff is settling now. But its stained the ooze outflow area orange.

oh yeah and BTW, welcome to PB, just noticed that was yer first post.

is your pond dug in clay? if that stuff is oozing out, sounds like you might have some coarse grained soil in your pond bottom.....are you worried about your pond leaking?

are you in a volcanic terrain up there in Portland? volcanic terrains can be notorious for iron rich hard GW.

Well thanks for the welcome!! I love this website!! Man I wish I knew about it 5 years ago? Ive got tons of links on my computer to various suppliers and dealers. Not a lot of links out there for the big pond owner. I have solid blue clay for dirt...with a constant stream/springs running into it. No worry for lack of water. This is my 3rd pond I built on my property. This one is about 40 x 60 feet and about 3-5 feet deep. Id have more if it wasnt for all the damn treehugging permit bs.

Yo, face72....
Good ta have ya here!
Check out this thread...it might help. Make sure you're done with lunch, tho...there's an identification pic that is pretty graphic.
Oily discharge thread

Thats the stuff. Thanks for the link. I see its pretty common. I had it tested a while back to see if my pond water was safe to drink. The water sample I gave them was taken really close to the orange goop. They said it was safe.

Brettski, I think someone who came up with the description of face's "dumplings" can handle that picture no problem.

Handle it is exaclty what Ive done. Ive been the noodle in that dumpling soup!