Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Need some Help

I live in Northeast ohio and have a little under 10 acres. We have picked the site we would like the pond and we have access to a little dozer and excavator. The pond we want is around 1/2 an acre. So today i went with a shovel and dug a few test holes and to my surprise was nothing but shale… I got about 1 and 1/2 foot down and it was nothing but shale. So i dug a few other test holes and same results. It just so happened the old farmer was out so i went and talked to him and he informed me that all the shale is from when they dug the road i live on. He is not sure how deep we would have to dig down before we hit soil again. My question is has anyone ran into this problem before? If so what did you do? Has anyone still dug a pond on shale and just had dirt trucked in? If so did it hold water good i will have a good runoff supply of water. Thank you and if anyone has any suggestions please help!

Hey Jake,

Welcome to PBF! FWIW IMHO I would not make decisions on 1.5 feet deep test holes. Get a backhoe or track hoe in to dig ya a few nice deep holes and see what you really have. Hopefully, some of the smarter folks will jump in with some more sound advice.

Again,

Welcome to PBF!

Bill D.

Welcome to the forum! If you can dig the pond to the size that you want, plus 2', I would bring in clay, and compact it with a sheepsfoot roller in 6"-8" lifts until you have a 24" thick layer of compacted clay over the shale.

Thanks! Where would u get the clay from how much dose it cost? Since we can get the equipment for just running cost we thought we were golden till this lol

You guys lost me on this one. How do you know there isn't good clay already at 3 feet?

Also we have a natural stream that runs through my woods down into a hallow and it actually runs into the side of a hill runs underground about 300 yards and comes out at the end of my driveway. My question about this is where it runs into the hill, it can get deep when it rains 2 to 3 feet in some spots. It's a nice open area with catails and some other vegetation. It would be nice to dig down there bit it's way to wet to get any dozer down in there any other ideas besides a dragline

I got about 3 feet down and was still on shale. Took forever with a shovel and I just gave up

Isn't shale a type of clay?? our local shale holds water very well. Most places I notice our shale tho the water level is high.

Is there a local expert you could talk too in order that you may know the best route to continue??

Some folks don't hit soil/clay till 6 plus feet. I agree with Bill D here get you a backhoe and dig down about 7 or 8 feet see what ya got! If you don't have any by 8 feet you could be in trouble, but even at 3 feet you could be a foot and a half a way from good soil?

RC

There are many different types of shale. Some have clay that bonds the shale together but some have no clay. Some shale will swell but others will not.

Tracy

The shale I have doesn't have clay u can actually feel air moving around at 3 to 4 foot down. I am going to try and dig a little deeper and see what I find just scared I won't hit dirt even 5 6 foot down