At my pond today. I spent some time back behind the dam trying to determine how bad my leak is. Since it’s full, I thought the added pressure off all that water might change things a bit. It looks to me like it’s sleeping under the dam in the original bed of the ravine we dammed up. I know it was trenched across two or three feet below the bottom of the old ravine, and then layered and packed as the dam was constructed. We also tried to use a sheepsfoot roller throughout the construction. However the roller was plagued with a leak, which needed to be filled daily (maybe should have been more) and it was also jammed up quite a bit of the time with the small rocks that were mixed in with my clay.
The pond builder left a gap in the dam during construction. He wanted this in case a big rain came during construction. The sheepsfoot roller was broken down completely when this gap was filled in. The gap was about where this original ravine is located.
This first pic behind the dam shows water in the original ravine waterway. It’s been there almost continuously since the dam was completed 4.5 yrs ago. It almost alway has orange algae growing in it, I don’t know if that means anything. There is no noticeable current in this water.
This second picture puts the first one in perspective. The overflow pipe is to the left of this seep. This perspective is downstream from the first picture. Just further back from the dam. The seep in the first picture is actually right below the tree laying across the ditch.
This third picture is even further back from the dam. It shows water in the ditch about a hundred feet from the dam. It also actually shows the emergency drain pipe on the left side of the picture. It’s a blue/green pipe that just angles up to near the top of the dam on the water side. It has two collars on it to prevent water from seeping along side of it.
Once again I see no current in the water. So the good news is it’s not a bad leak, I guess. There’s no good leak right?
I tried soilfloc a few years ago, I think that slowed it down. Is there any way without a current in this seep to try and track back where the water is coming from. (Dye)
I could try soilfloc again, and really concentrate on the area of the pond opposite where this original ravine is.
In normal summer days, I lose about 1/4” a day. It been full for a week. The level is at the bottom of the overflow pipe. The pond is iced over now. If I remember right the water temp has to be fairly warm for soilfloc to work, so I would have to wait until the water warms up.
Also, some of the water in the ravine may be coming off the hillsides, and the back of the dam, as snow melts off.
Just wondering if anyone has any additional suggestions on what I might be able to do?
We had a bad drought last year, and by October when we started getting rains again the pond was almost 5’ below full.
Thanks,
Jeff
