I'm reading the replies.
I'll just wait and see what happens. My contractor has done a lot of ponds in the area and I'll have to trust that he did it right. I'll do what he said...wait and see. What I need is RAIN. We get a little and then nothing for a week or more. What we get fills the pond 6" to a foot and then over the next week or so it slowly goes down. I'm not getting anywhere!
I have a "slight" valley with the dam across it. Most of the pond was dug out due to the slightness of the valley. There was a LOT of "topsoil", nice dark dirt that had (I guess) slowly filled in the valley, flattening it out, over thousands of years.
We hit water at about 6-8ft. The contractor called it "lateral water". The dam was dug down to about 12ft below the accumulated "topsoil" and a bunch of old tree trunks that were buried there during the land clearing. He dug until he hit clay. Both sides of the valley are clay. That is where he got the clay for the dam. He did mix some of the darker dirt with the clay to make about a 5:1 mix (?) of clay and topsoil.
Everything I've heard here makes me believe that he did the right things. So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. He said give it at least 6 months or more before I panic and they'll come back to rework the dam.
Did I mention that the SE and lower Alabama has been in a very bad drought that we're just coming out of. So, I'm hoping that he's right. That this is lateral water from upstream that has always been flowing through this "draw" and with the dam istalled it will keep it dammed up. The WAS water flowing very slowly where the dam is located when we bought the property. That natural water level was about at about 1/2 the pond depth level. I'm hoping that the "topsoil" surrounding the pond just needs to saturate again and then 'll be good to go.
I REALLY appreciate all your input.
