Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Filling in old pond

I live in Florida and have a groundwater pond that is approx 30 ft by 80 ft and 4-5 ft deep. We dug this about 5-6 yrs ago. Cattails and other weeds are slowly taking this over. Last year I tried killing the cattails but that just made the algea worse. We currently have the property for sale and this is getting to be a maintenance nightmare. No problems with water management district in filling in as it was not natural to begin with. Some of the dirt that came out is still in mounds but I am going to have a lot trucked in. One estimate was 3000 dollars to truck in dirt and fill in.

Any ideas?

Why don't you have someone come in with a trackhole and dig it out deeper. That will cost less and get ride of all the cattailes and there roots. Just an idea

Good idea. Is there any product that will kill cattails? I have tried Rodeo in the past with limited success. Part of the problem is that we are only here about half the time. Gone several months at a time. Each time I come home it looks worse.

I've faced this a couple of times, and I fully agree with URUP's suggestion.

I made the mistake at our last home of filling in a pond a little bigger than yours. After draining it, and kind of filling it in, it took more than a year to finish cleaning it up. I only wish I'd have taken pictures of my tractor belly deep in the former pond, about six months after we drained and filled it with dirt.

We eventually sold the property to people we knew. If it wasn't for them, the filled in pond was a real distraction because it took several years to stabilize.

Cleaning it out should be an asset. Because of it's size, you can probably get somebody in there with an excavator, rather than a full sized track hoe. In any case, you are probably talking about a days worth of work for somebody with a track hoe or excavator and a dump truck.

. . . just a thought.

Good luck,
Ken