pond pictures and thoughts Had this pond built by a friend of mine... (first mistake)
paid by the hour (second mistake)
we have approximately 7 acres of water shedable land that I was hoping would be sufficent to supply water to pond during rains. and as you can see in the pictures it filled up nicely during a down pour in february of this year however most of the ground was water logged and frozen so the rain shed into pond very readily. since that rain a pretty large hole opened up in the side wall of the pond and then i noticed a small drop in level of about 1/2" per day.
I dug out the large hole and repacked with bentonite natural clay mix and repacked the surrounding area good. The slow leak has seemed to stop naturally with the use of ducks crapping in the water, However this spring we had an unusually low rain fall totals and extremely hot dry spells. Some of the grass seed and weed seed made their way into the shallow edges of my pond area and are growing nicely in the clay... Its tough to get a mower down into the bottom to keep them down.
Should i just weed whack them until the pond fills or can i chemically remove them if I'm not planning on stocking this year?
I have two options for filling the pond one is expensive but will fill it up fast the other is questionable but probably my better option long term if it works seeing what your all thoughts may be .
Option 1) major creek at bottom of property, 60' elevation change and 520' of run. thinking of renting big trash pump and pumping it full. weekly rental is looking to be approx $500
Option 2) Neighbor had a fence installed and hired a utility line locator to ensure post didnt rupture my water line. He told her that while he was marking the lines his dowsing rod(?) found what he claimed to be a cavern full of water at the top of our property only about 5' below the surface. if that is the case that would be at a higher elevation than the pond and possibly be a good thing to tap into to resupply my ponds water.
Anyone with any insight into my best course of action it would be greatly appreciated. Ive never had a well dug not sure how much it would cost or if it would be worth it. cant really tell if pond is leaking currently or not as we loose about1/4 inch a week and I'm assuming its due to evaporation. Usually catches right back up each rain we get at this point