Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Pond with a hole... won't hold water

Hello guys, I recently purchased some land with a beautiful 2 acre hole where a water-filled pond should be. I'm having trouble locating experts in my area to help me attempt a fix. There are plenty of heavy equipment operators to choose from but I was hoping for a "pond doctor". My hours of searching online have produced squat. Any idea how to locate one? Somewhere in the Kansas City or Springfield Missouri area. Thanks for your help! I need it!

My favorite MO pond guy is Shawn Banks ~ http://www.midwestlake.com/

I know of a place where you can talk to a whole lot of pond experts in your area in April ~ Check out the Pond Boss Convention being held in Branson, MO. If you attend you can speak with one of the best pond builders/ dirt moving expert I know of ~ Mike Otto.

Thanks Sue. I will look into the Convention!

To clarify further, the hole is roughly 6' diameter and 2.5' deep. Bentonite? Cement? Liner? All the above?

Im lost? How do you know thats where its leaking?

I was wondering the same thing, then it dawned on me that there is NO water in the pond and since the aforementioned HOLE is at the BOTTOM and we know that water really doesn't like to leak UP....so short of some kind of cosmic siphon...I have concluded that the HOLE is to blame. The only other possibility is that the deep space anomaly-DEATH STAR- that Cecil brought to our attention might somehow be responsible???

sink hole???

Thanks for the feedback. The pond only has roughly a foot of water, it drains out of the aformentioned hole. Do you think it is wise to attempt a fix with a combination of concrete, bentonite and a liner? I will post pictures at the end of February.

I'd see if I can get any good clay locally first and pack it tight in 6" lifts, continuing out past the hole a ways.

Thanks. The previous owner that had the pond built put a ton of bentonite in the hole. He said it held water for 6 months and then drained like someone pulled the plug. He tried another ton and it held for 9 months and the same thing happened again. We were thinking the concrete would "plug" it and then spread the liner or clay on top and around.

Good thinking on the concrete, but how much would you need, and could you get it into the hole cleanly? You'll need between 2.5 and 3 cu. yds. of concrete to fill the hole, and a cu. yd. of concrete usually weighs over 3,000 pounds.

I lean towards the clay because you can incorporate it into the surrounding soil, knitting it together with the soil, and knitting each layer you add with the one beneath it. A liner placed on that area might allow water to get under it, negating any positive effects it may have. I was under the impression that you couldn't line just a small area, the liner had to come up above the water level around the whole pond.

I've been fighting the same problem for years. My hole fills up in the spring and lasts until June. Then drains, "water table pond". This is the first winter it has gone completely dry. Let us know if you have a fix that works.

Had a pond builder look at it and he believes we need to re-core it and bring in good clay to ensure we don't fix a symptom of a larger problem. He believes if we try to fix the visible hole the water will just create a new hole somewhere else. Problem is we are looking at a $8-10k investment...

Do you have otto's contact information- I live in east Tx -thanks

Here is the link to Mike's company website for his contact info. You can also just send him a PM here on the site by going to the "My Stuff" menu tab, clicking on "Messages," clicking on "New Private Message" in the upper left, and then typing Otto into the recipient box. It's that simple!

Thanks

Damn that got me rolling, great line haha