Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Digging pond I sandy soil high water table

Hi all.... I just join today because I am not sure of the best approach to take at this point with my "Pond"

We had wanted to build a 1 acre pond on our 80 acres. The land is all sand to our knowledge.... Very high water Table ~2 feet below the surface and when its very dry maybe ~4 feet.

I am attempting to dig the pond with a Komatsu PC200 with a 48" bucket.

What I am observing is that no matter how much I dig the banks just collapse and I am digging a slurry milk shake of sand and water.

Pumping the pond down is not an option because the rate at which the water flows in is incredible.

I guess my question is.... Am I wasting my time... the goal had been to dig a 1 acre pond that would not freeze out and is swimable in the summer.

I am not sure if there are techniques I should be using to do this or this is normal and it will end up being a shallow bowel.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Welcome to the forum... Someone with real brains will come along and answer your questions. This is a good place to get information and get to know some fine people.ask lots of questions.


Pat W

You will have very slow tapering banks to the bottom of the pond. Not that it would be wrong, but will give the pond a different management approach than most. More vegetation will grow around the banks.

Sounds like a job for a dragline. With the banks not holding up to dig straight down, there is a special setup you could use. Forgive my spelling on this, but it is called a Saurmans bucket. You tie a cable to something across the pond and the bucket follows it out and reel it in.

There are long reach backhoe's, but not sure what the furthest out you need to reach. Not only that, but you may want to expand the perimeter beyond what you originally were thinking, just so you could get to deep enough pond to avoid winterkills, slope-vs-depth thing.

I think this link will work to show a sketch of it...
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=saue...urmans+bucket#a

Ernie:

Welcome to the forum! I'm familiar with digging ponds in soil like you describe. The easiest way is to keep pumping out the water as you are digging. You just aren't using a large enough pump.

Yes, the sand will try to wash into the pond as the water runs into the pond. If you make the banks no steeper than 4:1, you will avoid that problem. Use an innertube to float the intake end of the intake hose, or you'll fill it up with sand. Been there, done that and ripped the hose in half trying to pick it up with the excavator..........

We used a 14,000 gph pump to keep the water out of my pond when we renovated it. If one isn't enough, I have used two at the same time. If two 3" pumps aren't big enough, get a single 6" pump.

The only way to do it is to keep the water out and dig in as little amount of water as possible. As the water runs out of the bucket, it takes a lot of sand with it.

Does any of this look familiar?

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=12914&Number=151049#Post151049

The trick is to keep the water off of you. A small pump or a big pump but that is the only way to make any progress. Otto

The master has spoken. Only four posts from Mr Otto, a man I do not know, but have heard all proclaim him Dirt King. To keep up the pace, we'll see him again in 3 yrs for his next post.

Mike has recently written a book about dams, dirt, etc. I got one at the Conference. There's not much about the subject that's not in there. I would suggest that anybody get it before proceeding.