I wanted to pick your guys brains on what to do with my new construction pond. I will attach photos to help make sense of the issue. This is a bowl shaped area in the front of my home that I wanted to try and make hold water. We dug some test holes and found we had what we believed to be adequate clay to hold. I have access to a dozer so we scraped top soil out and worked clay from the middle (which was our most prevalent source) outwards up the banks putting a 4-6 inch layer mostly, with much deeper clay towards the center of pond. We did start to run out of clay the further we went up banks hence I believe is my problem with it not holding. After construction it was tracked in with a dozer and a heavy rubber tired farm tractor. I understand compaction wasn't performed with sheepsfoot or vibratory roller so yes you are correct we may not have adequate compaction. Either way after construction we were lucky enough to get 8 inch rainfall off of Hurricane Harvey which nearly completely filled the pond first rain. The pond held at about 12 feet deep center and stayed for around 5 days before it started to slowly dissapear. The pond now is down to around 9 feet and holding pretty steady. The only problem with that is i have a 10-15 foot dirt/clay ring around pond that will not seem to hold and water will not rise to my crest area. At this point I was considering bringing in tons of bentonite and working it into banks and compacting or possibly bringing in natural clay to work the banks in holds up bringing water level on up. The fact that the water holds steady at current level leads me to believe that water is going out of the banks possibly above current level? The only other theory is that once the water depth is higher the weight of the water is able to work through the clay lined bottom due to more pressure? So at this point should I start working on the banks and work with what I got to bring it on up?? Ive had ponds in the past in this area that have taken a season of rain fall up and down to "settle" in and hold properly, but I know that is contrary to popular professional pond construction belief. I would love any comments or recommendations from the professionals! Thanks in advance!

Link to photos here -----> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8o-bWRG4isqX3ZibUZHTWVUOWM

Last edited by Brian E; 10/11/17 10:03 AM.