Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond level

How long does it take a pond to seal up and quick leaking? The pond is new and has been filled to capacity but, when I turn off the well the water drops about 2-3 a day. We have a really good clay bottom so I don't know what could be going on.

Jimmy

How big is the pond, and how was the pond basin compacted.

The pond is 5/8 of an acre. The basin was compacted with a cat and backhoe. Depth of the pond is 10-12 feet in the middle.


Jimmy

It might be that the clay hasn't reached saturation point yet if it's a new pond. All ponds leak to some extent, but not that much. If you see the level still dropping that quickly after a month, then I'd start to get concerned.

The best way to make sure a pond will hold water like a bathtub is to make sure the clay has the proper water content before compacting, and use a sheepsfoot roller or multi-tired pan scraper that is heaped with dirt for weight. Tracked dirt moving equipment doesn't have the necessary PSI ground pressure to properly compact soils.

You say you have a really good clay bottom, but does that clay continue all the way up to the surface water level of the pond?

Jimmy, maybe Zep will see this and be of some help. His soil is probably very similar to what you have, and maybe he'll have some experiences to share with his water level changes.

This general area's pretty diverse as far as soil goes. In a 30 mile radius there's black gumbo, sugar sand, and red clay that gets as hard as concrete when dry. I have the red clay/sand mix and I've drilled post holes 10' from the pond edge, and hit water 2 or 3 feet down. That's a lot of natural absorption.

I might cut the pump off for a few days, and see if the pond seeks it's own level. If it drops a foot and then quits dropping, then maybe it's absorption or a leak closer to the shoreline. If the water continues to keep dropping, then I might be worried.

We only had 2-3 inches of top soil when we dug the pond and the rest was clay and the deeper they dug the more moist it got.
I'm hoping saturation because there is a water stain about 3 foot up the damn sides and all around the pond above the water level. The ground is really wet all around the pond.
We started filling the pond on March 7th. and it only took two weeks to fill to capacity.