Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Fill over pond muck

My pond tapers to a point in a place where there was an old earthen spillway, and I want to fill that part in to round it off. There's about 3-6 inches of muck over hard ground underwater.

I'll be piling about 1.5 feet of dirt to bring up to grade. It seems best to scrape the muck before filling. BUT that'll be a huge pita. I'm sure I'll get the tractor stuck no matter how careful I am. This area won't be used for driving. Can I just pile my fill on top of the muck? What if I run into deeper muck? Are there any other considerations other than having relatively solid ground for my tractor?

I see no problems IF the pond was holding water to your satisfaction previously. It'll probably settle over time and you might have to add more dirt. Will you be compacting that dirt in any way as it's being placed?

I'll push it down with the loader bucket after dumping. Then start driving over it a little at a time. This is a mini project mainly to reduce the area of the pond setback/buffer.

Once I get my track loader I'll be moving hundreds of yards of muck and fill around the property. I'm trying to get an idea of how muck is to work with. Is it spreadable? Gradeable? Mixable with loose fill? How pileable vs runny? Usable for dam backside? How thick can I layer it? I guess I'll probably learn as I go and adapt my plans accordingly.

The answer to all those questions is "It Depends". Depending on how much water is in the muck, it will vary in consistency from soup to damp dirt.

crazyj, as esshup stated, it depends. Most muck is loaded with anaerobic bacteria producing hydrogen sulfide gasses and acids. Depending on the depth of muck in a pond, it rarely ever dries deeper than 18"...safe to walk on, but heavy equipment will sink. I think Mike Otto has said muck needs to be spread out and tilled/churned a few times over a week or two to dry it well and to let the toxins escape.

There's about 3-6 inches of muck over hard ground underwater.

Crazyj,
There may be more muck (3-6")than you mentioned above. Some may be settled & hard compacted over time. I had an expansion done last year. The bottom of my pond appeared to be fairly hard, but the water was heavily stained. After draining, 5' of the black decomposing formation was mucked from the bottom of my project before they got to the clay bottom...never smelled anything quite like that...sweet/sour putrid odor. I for one, am glad I took the extra time and went through the expense to have it done. My pond was 13 years old at the time, had a pretty aggressive watershed, and is surrounded by a wooded area.

The muck was piled off in a corner of the property and is now covered with thick vegetation. Very rich in nutrients....it will later be spread and tilled in a garden.
Charlie

Btw, I talked with my cousin about this. He does a lot of grading,

They do this all the time, and to do it, they build a "lift" or a "bridge", which just means anytime they're working, they always keep a prescribed amount of fill under the machinery and over the muck/swamp. He says you can work on top of some pretty nasty ground if you keep the fill thick enough. If the machine starts to sink, back up quickly and start with a thicker layer everywhere. Once you're done, you can backscrape the excess off, to an extent.