I cleaned out a spring using a backhoe. The small pond was directly above my larger pond. Never again. Even during 2004 when we had record rains the pond did not fill. Thus a large amount of runoff to my large pond was stopped. It is just about dry now and I'm going to attempt to stop it up.

As ML and Robinson say, be very careful. It might be good under certain circumstances but most stories of springs and ponds are like mine.