Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Pond Liner or Clay

Billlake,

I have not used liners very much at all. Good clay is usually easier to find and cheaper in the Southeast. From my experience, I would think you would need to cover most if not all of the pond bottom to keep water from seeping @ the liner. Otherwise you would have to deep trench @ the entire leak area to bury the edges of the liner, backfilling with good clay. Seems like bentonite would be easier in that application. Bentonite seems to work better in isolated and easily identified leaks than it does over broad areas. The dump truck/dozer method of raising the levee is very suspect in my opinion. Hard to get good compaction in my experience, even with good clay and proper soil moisture. If you have high quality clay for core material, you may want to cut a "V" shaped trench down to a foot or so into the old levee and come all the way up with a core. This may have to be done over the entire length.

-HH