Jim,

Welcome to the Forum. I'll throw out a few thoughts, some or all of which you may have already considered.


First, pub 590 is a great place to start. It has helped me immeasurably. Second, I would recommend that you tackle renovating the old pond as the first step in your project to help establish an experience base for yourself, for evaluating potential contractors for the larger construction, and for getting a better feel for the soils you have and how they can be shaped into a good pond on your ranch.

Some thoughts on the larger projects. The soil composition for the dam is critical. You may have to dig deeper and/or move clay to the dam site to achieve a leak free dam. Soil tests are required to make this determination.

In addition, I've been on some South Texas ranches and have seen the effects of high water events. My concern would be to insure that the dam(s) would not be washed out by such an event. I think a professional engineering evaluation would be in order before starting your construction on the larger dams.

The use of culverts and pipes in the dam adds some risk also to the project. To minimize those risks not only requires adequate soils, but also expert installation from an experienced operator. Your seepage is most likely to come from these points and anything but 100% perfect installation will increase your risks.

The key to these projects, in my opinion, is the availability of good quality clay. Your costs will be a function of that availability. Your chances of success are also dependent on that factor.

Take the time and spend the money up front to make as good a determination of that factor as possible. With that knowledge and an engineering evaluation of the proposed dam, you should have the information you need to make a decision on proceeding. There will still be risks, but you will have mitigated the major ones.

Please keep us informed on your progress. You have a very interesting set of projects which could provide more knowledge to readers of the Forum.