I'm not expert on excavating or building ponds but one thing I noticed after being around this site for several years is that most people seem to build ponds by damming up a naturally formed ravine or drainage path to build a pond. I would imagine this is the cheapest way to make a pond but it's not the only way. I didn't have that option on my property but I do have 20 acres of peat bog. By definition I think the peat bog extends down into the ground to within the water table. Thus, I don't need 700 acres of watershed to keep my pond full. It gets its water from the ground. There are people on this forum who could tell you technically what this is called but I like to describe my pond as being below the water table. One perhaps could also say that it's the same as being spring fed. Now in order to build a pond under these circumstances I had to dig every cubic yard of soil (peat) out and move it. That's why this is not the cheapest way to build a pond. The up side however is that if it's a bog that is always wet then your pond will always have water and in my case the level hardly fluctuates at all. In the worst drought years my pond level fluctuates less than a foot. One way to turn all that dirt into a benefit is if you can sell it. In my area I can get a peat mining permit that allows me to remove all the peat from a defined area and sell it. I haven't done that yet since the pond I made is only 1/2 acre and I used all the peat from that project to create a very nice yard and garden around my house. My next project will be a one acre pond for which I hope to sell the peat. I have a friend who created a 5 acre lake by contracting a black dirt company to come in and remove all the peat. They paid him $50,000 for the peat and after they were done he had a 5 acre hole that filled with water. They paid him to build his pond. I am seriously thinking about buying the equipment needed to excavate and pulverize the dirt and sell it myself to make even more money. Just some alternative thoughts for you to ponder.
