Bill,

Thanks for your reply. I was not aware that E.Choli was limited to warm blooded animals. I have a 2000 dwarf tree apple orchard and deer feces contaminating dropped apples for cider making is a great E. Choli concern.
The pond would be used to irrigate future patches of pumkins and raspberries. The dairy farmers around me all spread manure in their fields from the cows, but then again the crops there are not for human consumption. I read somewhere (cant find it now) that pond bottom sludge was not of benefit in gardening due to lacking nutrients and
the fact that the sludge is unstable (shrinks considerably when dried and then expands alot when wet). The lack of nutrient part simply didnt sound right to me considering that the levels of ammonia, nitrates etc all would benefit a 'non-root' type of crop.