Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Newly Renovated Pond Water Level

Ok. Need some re-assurance cause i'm alittle concerned.

to refresh: I have just recently put in about a .6 acre pond in my back yard, a farm pond basically. Fed by natural springs that flow a ton usually, but with the current no rain are very slight, yet flowing.

I finished the pond and put the 90 in and the overflow pipe up right and water started pooling immediately. Then we got soaking crazy rains like 1 and 2" at a time. it filled a ton in the deep end and started creeping up in the shallow.

Since then we've had almost no rain. A sprinkle here and there and my water level is down about a foot+ on the overflow pipe, the deep end.

My pond has almost no shade and is basically in the direct sun all day, we have had little or no rain my springs are just trickeling.

On the back side of the damn is a decent flow of water, but could very well be from another spring, since they are everywhere.

My excavator buddy and local pond experts came over and told me that there is no way that is coming from the pond because the pond would be empty if it were, plus its looks like its not coming from the thinnest part of the dam and would have to come through a lot of earth, and its lower than the overflow pipe out the back, thus lower than bottom of my pond.
He also said that it takes a while for the earth to soak in for a new pond. I dug it all out and now its like a sponge while water sits there...

We are in a period of little or no rain, but i'm alittle concerned that every day water level is lower. Pond construction was down less than a month ago, probably July 15ish.

Evaporation could be exceeding the inflow of water you have coming into your pond.

I agree with what Shorty said. But, with the cooler days ahead, the amount of evaporation should be getting less.

Suggestion:

Gt one of those plastic electric fence stakes, the kind that is relatively square with a metal spike on the end. Buy a 3' aluminum painted yardstick. At the same time, buy a rain gauge if you don't already have one. Attach the yardstick to the stake, and push it into the pond bottom. Write down the water level reading.

Keep tabs on the water level in the pond, and write down both the water level and any rain amounts you get. Compare that to the pan evaporation rates that NOAA, Cornell University, etc. have for the same time period for your area. If the pan evap rates are much less than what you are seeing in your pond for a number of months, then I'd begin to worry about not having a sealed pond. All ponds leak to some extent unless they have a rubber liner, but they shouldn't be leaking a LOT. At some point in time the pond bottom should reach saturation, and I don't think that will take more than a few months once the pond is at full pool

I guess I should have realized I posted about this already...

Here's the update

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=25825&Number=330149#Post330149