Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Pond drained. Wet muck

Hey Guys: I'm a newbie to the site and need some advice.
I drained my 1.2 acre pond last week and have a bed of muck.
20 years since pond has been drained.There are many springs that feed this pond and I know it will not dry out until summer.Options....
1)Would you recommend spreading winter rye seed on muck to keep erosion down until warm weather?
2)Attempt to channel water to center of pond and remove muck now?
3)Shut the valve and let it fill back up and treat with biological treatments?

Welcome to PBF!

Do you know how thick the muck layer is? Defining the size of the problem will help experienced PBF members provide more informed advice on developing a go forward plan.

Good Luck and, again, welcome!

Bill D.

When we were gathering fish the muck started about 15 feet from the rim of the pond.Muck was about 3 feet deep and tapered off to about a foot deep around 40 feet from rim of pond.I could actually stand and not sink in the deeper area of the pond.
The soil on our property is sand on the surface but turns to kaolin when you dig deeper.We are about 30 miles from the kaolin capital of the world.The springs feed this pond year round and even flow during the driest part of the summer.Thanks for the reply.

If you cut a path thru the dam, do you have a place to have a dozer to push the muck out and spread it?

Do you have equipment, or will you be contracting it out?

In my re-do, I did create swaths/trenches thru the muck. They led to a pit near a shoreline. I then pumped the water out of the pits, and that dried the muck faster. It will still take a long time for it to dry.

Everyone that I had out to look at what the cost would be, they all said the more dried out the less cost it would take, and the better quote they could give. Well worth trying to dry it up rather than fill it back up, at least till you gain more info.

If this could be any help, it cost $2,800 to clean the 5 feet of muck out of my 1/4 acre pond in August of 2015. We pumped it as dry as possible, cut the dam, and started pushing it out from one side into a pit a backhoe dug in the edge of the basin. The backhoe kept dipping it out of the pit and tossing it out of the way, behind the dam. When it got built up too much, the dozer would come out and push the sludge out of the way. It took three days total. I let it dry for about 12 months, then it cost $210 for a small dozer to spread and shape it behind the dam. If you start at the edge of the sludge, and scrape down with the dozer to dry soil underneath to maintain traction, the project can be done as soon as the pond is drained.

Thanks for the cost John F, I guess in that case it really does sell investing in aeration if it can cut the frequency of muck removal. What I wonder is if over the period of 20 years, if the pond were aerated, how much less muck there would have been?

My pond was likely built originally around 1959-65, so it was probably over 50 years old, and the previous owner allowed cattle to access it. Now it's a hay field.

Here is a thread about my experience cleaning out the muck in my son's pond that might provide some insight.

Reclaiming 50 year old pond

As for as my experience about this issue, I suggest you must do step (2) Attempt to channel water to center of pond and remove muck now. Thanks