Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Pond SILT::::::::::Using Silt For Levee Repair?

Good morning,


A tree's roots led to problems with leaking, and it got to the point that something had to be done. I have breached the dam, and there's only about 1 foot of water in the center of the pond left. I plan on taking care of that in the near future.


Anyway, this pond was dug about 1950. There is a whole lot of silt on the bottom, and I'd like to remove some of it. I've read about it shrinking and expanding due to moisture content, but will it seal leaks or let the water pass through? I am repairing my levee with clay, but now I'm wondering if I could incorporate silt into the levee repair. If I were to use some silt for some of my levee repair, how would you do it? Clay first then a layer of silt then clay, or most of it only clay with a shallow layer of silt on top?

I think you will find that the most popular opinion is to NOT use it mixed in or layered with the clay. That sounds like a bad, bad idea. Using a foot of it on top will greatly increase the growth of grasses however. The soil around my place is pretty poor, clay and rock, but my pond dredgings grow vegetation like nobody's business. In fact, you can obviously tell where I used it to fill in low spots in the yard. Now, it is pretty common to properly build the clay levee and then use the silt on the back side which makes the dam wider and/or with a more gradual slope for mowing purposes.

Aix, I wanted to add that the pond muck can be very high in nutrients, so much so that it may be to loaded to the point of burning plant life/preventing germination. It typically requires a period of time to dry out and breakdown. Spreading out in a field (about a foot thick) for a few months worked for me for the low spot areas that I filled in the yard. The area behind the dam was not spread out just piled up and worked smooth as it dried. I have had no issues of burning plant life, but it weathered from October to April before it was smoothed over and seeded.

Please don't use the dredgings from the pond to repair the dam (levee). It's best if you have room, to push them to the back slope of the dam and spread them out to dry for a few months, then smooth and seed. If used in the dam, the silt could cause further leaks if it lacks the proper clay content. We renovated and cleaned the silt out of our pond about 23 months ago. The silt took nearly a year to dry sufficiently to spread and shape.

That is what I wanted to know. Thank you.

I think I'll try to put it on the backside of my levee. I have a LOT of the stuff, but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to remove. If I could have a Dozer peel it and pile it (like I've read about online) then that would be great. However, I'm not too sure about putting any heavy equipment inside of the pond, even once it's dried for quite a while. It just seems like a huge risk to take, because if a dozer or other H.E. were to sink, who knows how much the recovery fees could cost me.


I'll just have to see how things go once it dries more. Any recommendations for removing the silt once it dries more?


On a side note, I like the idea of using it as topsoil (once it breaks down/cools off enough). Between my Dad and me, we have about 40 fruit trees and gardens, and I'd like to keep adding more. Hundreds of cubic yards of nutrient rich soil sounds like something I'd really like to spread out

My dirt guy used a track loader (full bucket on front) and started in one spot and removed muck down to solid clay and keep doing so until the muck was removed. The idea is to always keep the piece of equipment on solid clay bottom. The clay got slippery, but stayed firm. At one point near the center of my pond the muck wall was 8 feet tall. The only trouble we had was when the muck landslided, but it was not a big issue. Rubber tired equipment would of had a hard time however due to the slickness of wet clay. Tracks are the key.