Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Should I keep at it with this pond?

Should I keep at it with the pond I have now? Or build a new one in a different hopefully better spot. I have 30 acres so room isn't a problem.

The issue is the area where the pond is now is Sandstone Glacial till...as if you could find a worse substance to make a dam and pond bottom out of. The broken pieces of sand stone go down as far as one would wish to dig hundreds of feet. The pond stays about half full due to a spring running into it. It fills up from run off when it rains. The pond is more like a slow sieve. It doesn't "hold" water. It just slows it down.

Issue two. When it rains it gets a huge influx of water. This causes the pond to be full of sediment. The water is crystal clear so I get algae blooms with the nutrients the run off brings.

The positives... I would just have to remove the sediment and clean the pond out. Maybe make it a bit bigger. Then seal it with clay again. The dam is quite solid and strong it's made of rock Would you believe it has a few leaks.

New area
A spot I have thought about moving it to is just up hill from the spring. It has standing water just about all year (I've never seen it dry) Till I dig a pond. This spot should just hold the water and I would just have to dig the hole. No dam to leak, no crazy amount of run off, no continuous flow of nutrients. Just clear mountain water. I'm also considering making the new pond surface even with the spring tho up hill and not directly connected it would mean the lowest level it would get to if you know what I mean.

What do you all think?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I would start over in a new spot only because I a have a leaky pond now and would not want to go through it again. Not an expert just my opinion.

That's exactly what I'm thinking.

Basically what I'm doing with the pond is every day or every other. I'm going down and climbing in. I then stir the pond muck with a rake. It clouds up the water good. This blocks up the seeps and the water level rises quickly. They slowly regain their flow tho in a few days. Maybe if I keep at this for a while it will eventually block the seeps with debris/muck. The visible flow/seep has slowed to just about a garden hose or a bit more. This is way less than the spring gives even in the driest part of summer.

It's cheap and it's kinda working. I just wonder if it will ever stop fully or at least not increase again after a few days.

How big is the pond? The sediment will keep slowing it down, but I don't think it will ever completely stop it up like a good 2' of clay will.

It depends on how much patience you have. If good clay is available close to the pond, I'd fix it. If the pond is as big and as deep as you'd like it, just dig it out another 2', and line it/sheepsfoot roll it back to the orig. depth and be done with it.

The pond is a triangle of sorts... 120 ft long X 80 ft wide with the point if you get me about 10ft wide. The seep is about 20 feet long with the worst area in the dam is about 4' wide. I put bentonite in the bad area. Silted it up good. Then I covered it with a bit of soil. I think it has stopped for the most part.

I'm wondering if the sediment will block it enough over time that I don't have to do it weekly. Yearly would be fine. Even once every couple months would be ok too.

Clay availability? Not so much. I would have to have it trucked in. The the pond is also 1000 ft from the road without the best access. The pond down a hill through a bit of woods. Then over the glacial rock deposits. I'd need to build a road for a truck to get back there. I'm currently adding to the top of the dam where it was over topped with soil from a small area of dense soil I found. It's a heavy dense slit/clay mix. Not really what I would say is "good clay." But it's stable, sinks easily, and gets hard after a bit even in the water. If I had a ton of this stuff it would be great. But the borrow area is smallish... I could get at most only 20 or 30 yards.


I'm kinda nervous about digging it out too much. What if it's the silt that's holding the water. I'm thinking I may just keep mixing it's mostly organic. If I get heavy rain with out lightning. I may just go down and rake the crap out if it and let it run over the spill way.

So stirring it up seems to help? How old is this pond? I might keep it up for awhile but like esshup said clay liner would be better. I have the same problem with seepage but cant see it. Its just going in to the ground I believe. Im watching levels now closely to see when it stops to get an idea of where the seepage starts.If you know right where its seeping I would be inclined to to try some more bentonite if you can get it drained down to where its at so you could mix it and pack it good.

Yeah, the stirring helped almost immediately. Faster than the bentonite really. I was very surprised. The pond was built in the 50's from what I understand. I believe it held water till brush took over the dam with the last owners... They had the place for 15 years as a vacation home and never left the house. It was still holding pretty good for me tho. It kept the water level at about 80%. Till we had a huge rain storm 13" in 24 hours. It washed over the dam and wore off the top. In my haste to fix it I made it worse. The level fell to about 30%. I've been working on it off and on since. Never had as much luck as this time tho. I've tried clay, concrete, dirt, all manner of things. Pond muck... hmm.

I have no real way of draining it down easily. Except for a long summer dry spell. The stream that runs in would overwhelm any practical sized pump if it rains more than a 1/4". The pond has a spill way area only. The water just runs over a low area with all stone. No pipe or anything like that.

If the water goes down this summer. I will keep placing the good dirt in the area where I see the water flowing on the far side of the dam. But I'm hoping it works for now. A major redo would be needed to get it to seal off completely and permanently from the responses.

Well at least with a constant stream feeding the pond you could live with some seepage as long as the stream can keep up. Let us know what happens with this.

I will.