We tried to siphon out the water. We even used pumps. But i have a constant water flow, and we just could not keep the water out of the pond. I fought it for 6 months, got really sick of it and called my friend with the excavator. First problem solved!! I think we are going to clean out the pond silt, groom all the banks, and then we will dig a deeper hole in the center of the pond for all of the water to gather while we close up the damb. Just a thought!