Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Ground water vs. well

I have excavated 12' of sand from my new pond and and have reached the water table. There is approximately 4' more sand to remove before I get to the clay I need to line the sides. Here is my question. Could I lay drain tile around the inside sides of the pond just above the clay bottom in the sand before I line the sides. Then pump from the ground water to fill and maintain the pond? This seems like a good supply of shallow water with a much greater pumping capacity than a well.

hi bill, welcome to PondBoss.

interesting geology there......16 feet of sand soils overlying clay soils which you will excavate into and use to seal the sides of the pond...correct?

it took me several minutes to try and visualize what yer describing and i'm not quite sure i got it.........but........let me convulute the description for my own purposes.....it sounds like you want to utilize the natural shallow groundwater (occurring in the sandy soils) from outside the newly sealed sides of the pond, and pump it (back) into pond from the drain tiles you installed before sealing everything up.

if the production of the shallow water table will support pumping i dont see why that wouldnt work, and i guarantee you no one else here has that kind of pond design, it is unique from what i've seen here and throughout my "pond" experiences.

anybody else have a comment on this? very interesting and different......take some pics of yer pond construction and post em up here (compressed some please) for folks to see, thanks for posting bill.

Thanks Dave, your interpretation is correct. Just seemed to me I could get much more water from a drain field than a 4' well point. No up to date pictures but good satelite view at 45 18 53.4n 84 35 10.6w if you go to www.flashearth.com and use the microsoft ve option.

How deep of a well are you proposing?

If I don't use the ground water the well will be 85' to the aquifer. I would like to use a windmill and perhaps a solar pump but 85' is pushing the technology and reducing the capacity. The ground water has remained at a constant level in my test hole for over 3 years and using a farm tiling machine to tile around the inside edge of the pond seems pretty straight forward.

We have about the same situation. 14ft of sand till we hit the clay. Water table is about 10ft. Never thought of laying down tiles. Good Idea. Only other problem is the pond(s) will be located in a dense stand of hardwoods and pines. About 43 22 10.0n, 85 55 35.0w. Thanks for the Idea.

We've used horizontal wells/infiltration galleys for years. they work very well in situations where wells are not very productive. Be aware of the shallow aquifer water chemistry though; it's not always good.

I use to be surprised at seeing clay underlying sand/gravels until I kept seeing it over and over throughout my career.