Steve, I spent the last few days hiking much of the KY hills similar to those in TN while trying to locate a suitable place to build a fish farm and saw one recurring theme...Many spring fed ponds dug that were empty due to the underground streams that often follow, in far greater volume, below the soils than what water we see above the soils. I saw 11 "spring fed ponds" that were bone dry due to the pond construction hitting the underground streams, and creating sink holes said spring head waters are again flowing into.
Make sure you excavate the entire above surface, spring flow path then refill using a 2-3 foot thick, well compacted clay lining in 6" lifts over the path of your surface spring flow area to avoid creating a drain. Also cover any exposed bedrock with good, compacted clay as well to save yourself many, expensive-to-correct-later headaches from leaks. Your Dam Core should need to go deep enough to cut off and plug any underground flow that would flow "under" your lake/dam as well.
I'd love to hear from Otto and get his suggestions on this thread!!!
Last edited by Rainman; 06/09/13 01:11 PM.
