Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site The dream of a pond.

IMHO the cost is made up of building the dam, with good clay soil, the hardware and piping, then clearing the land where the pond will encompass. The size of the pond is not how it was quoted for me. The topography determines the size & depth (uless you have them dig it out, in which case your location for the pond is questionable) of your pond. Otherwise, the $ you were quoted sounds about right to me. Interesrlingly enough we saw ~ 50% reduction in the cost quotes from 2008 to 2011!

Wow, that is a heck of a lot of cash for that size. We paid about $9500 for everything on a little less than 0.7 acre pond. No permits needed until you go over an acre for flooding concerns. Just have to stay away from lot lines. I am talking New York here, the land of regulation and high taxes.

My guess is you land happens to be where everyone in the area wants the same thing, so you are getting gouged.

Your topography looks great for a pond. The big question might be wheter your soil has enough good clay to build a dam and hold water. I've had six ponds built, some with less than 4 acres of water shed, and all of them have filled up. And, finding someone that knows how to build a proper dam is important too. The costly permit process and feasability studies that you might have are a real bummer. I had none of that here. Anyway, government bureaucratic agencies in my area are to lazy and lackadaisical to follow up on much of anything. NRCS is one of the worst. My experience with them has been dismal. They told me that the first pond I built was not feasible and they would not assist in any way. That was about 7 years ago, and now the pond is over 4 acres and doing fine. I'm sure some of the NRCS offices are competent though.