Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions New Pond Sealing

I had a new pond dug back in Mar 09 that is 1 acre by 10ft deep. The bottom of the pond ended up being a white clay that has some glass like material in it. Since then the most water it has had in it is about 4-5 feet and every time it has drained down to nothing. Just trying to figure out if this is just part of the sealing process or if I have a problem. Thanks

Certainly not part of the sealing process. It sounds like you hit some sand. Get a container/bucket and put a hole in the bottom. Dump some of the bottom soil from the deepest part into it and pack it. Then add water and see what happens. You can also make a ball of it and see if it stays together.

You may have to line the bottom with 2 ft. of well packed clay.

Definitly not what I wanted to hear. The guy that dug the pond keeps telling me that it may take a little more time but its been almost a year and its really wet in the Wilson County area were the pond is located. I thought for sure it would hold with the last 7 inches of rain we had. I returned from Iraq just to find a muddy hole. Will it hurt to dig out the additional 2 feet and then pack with clay or should I stop at the depth its at right now? I really would like to keep the pond at 10ft.

Hello Jarrett and welcome to Pond Boss. I'm sorry to hear that it was the circumstance of pond not holding water that brought you here but we're glad you found us. And thank you for your service to our country.

Here here,I cant say it better than that.Back to your pond,try to find someone locally that does ponds,not move dirt and get a second opinion.Maybe Mike Otto,our resident pond expert could recommend someone.

If anybody know of someone in my area that I can get a second opinion from please let me know. I am located about 30 miles south of San Antonio. I was also wondering if because my pond is located in the corner of a down sloping field with a L shaped damb that is about 50ft wide at the base may have something to do with all the water being absorbed up. Its a combonation of the red and white clay that was dug out of the hole covered in black land dirt.

I'm going to get pretty basic here and if you already know these things, I apologize.

Think of it this way. When you have a leak, it is usually a rocky area or sand. Decent clay and/or sandy loam doesn't leak much when properly packed. However, like Mike Otto says, all dirt leaks to some extent.

It sounds like, to me, that you may have a sandy area. Sand is often or usually in a strip and can be called an aquifer. Actually, when we dig a well, we usually find water in water bearing sand. It either seeps or runs into the hole that we have dug and we pump from the hole that has penetrated the aquifer. I expect that you have hit a sand strip that can run for any kind of distance. It can take all of the ground water that it can get. Digging deeper is futile because all of the water above the aquifer will be drawn into it. The trick is to identify the leaky area and correct it by 1.5 to 2 ft. of well packed good clay.

It is my personal belief that your pond builder knows or should have known this and should have stopped shoveling at the first sign of sand.

Thanks for the info. The pond was originaly suppose to be deeper but while it was being dug the guy hit sand and repacked clay over it. It is possible that there is may be a shollow area of clay that needs more. I will take some samples and see what i find. Thanks

You know, I have never figured out how to compact clay on the side of a pond. I guess it can be done but it seems like gravity would pull it down.

I've seen it done on a 3:1 sloped side, but it takes a good or gutsy sheepsfoot driver.

I have a question on compaction of pond banks. I have existing pond that is about 3/4 of the way full and about 6 ft deep in middle. I want to treat the remaining 2-3 feet vertical section around the pond with a mixture of DB-200 and Bentonite and compact it in hopes of getting pond to fill on up. The only problem is that it's VERY steep. Since the pond has enough water in it to sink a sheepsfoot roller I don't want to risk trying to ride the banks and i'm even scared to attempt a 4 wheel driver tractor for rubber tire compaction. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do? I had thought about renting a "jumping jack" hand tamper and just walking it around the banks doing it manually. It would be a slow painful process but I really dont know what else to do. I'm up for anything if someone has any ideas?? Thanks.

Who dug your pond I'm curious I live in wilson county too I got my pond dug out by Sammons dozer he's done alot of ponds out here.