Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Adding Muck/Sediment to the back side of a dam.

We lowered our lake and will be scraping and hauling off a lot of the sediment that is in it.
Would I have any issues with dumping this material,(Sediment, Muck, Dirt, Rock)on the backside of the dam ?

Should I scrape the brush and vegetation off the back before adding the material.?
We would like to make the backside of the dam with a more gentle slope so we can cut grass and maintain it.

thanks

I think you will be fine dumping the sediment on the backside of the dam. It should dry out and give you some good fertile dirt. Without seeing it, I would say don't bother with scraping the brush unless it it in the way of placing the sediment. You will probably have to smooth and grade the sediment after it dries, and you can take care of any brush that doesn't get buried then.

If there are air voids trapped in the brush, the area will have dips once the brush starts to decompose.

Depending on the density and size of the brush, it might be better to scrape it clean.

I was thinking of the same thing with my 30yr old pond. The leaves from the oaks and run-off have silted it in. Would like to get a trackhoe to clean it up and deposit the dirt on the backside of my new pond. If anything, will help to smooth the embankment for mowing.

Putting that stuff on a slope might be a problem. It is often the consistency of pudding and might not stay where you want it.

I did this on my son's pond when I cleaned it out and refurbished it. It will work fine.

Just be aware that it will likely be at least a two part process. The first part being piling the cleanout behind the dam while trying best as you can to make it shed water. It will be mucky slimy and not be able to do much with it. Let it set six months to a year, then come back in with a dozer for the grading and shaping.

If you try to do much with while it is still wet muck it will mostly be an exercise in futility. Just spread it out best you can and let it set. It actually likely will not even grow much till exposed to the air for a while. After it ages about a year it will grow grass great.

The new dirt will also be very spongy even after it dries out to begin with. By letting it age, it will firm up and be a lot better to level out to seed to grass. I tried working my son's down pretty quick after it had mostly dried out and the tractor would still make deeper tracks than I wanted to leave in the finished product. After it dries out, is spread out with the dozer, and worked down with a tractor and implement, it eventually will work up really nice. But don't expect to go in and have a finished dam within a couple weeks of starting. Figure about a year later before it can be finished. Just give it time, and it will work nice.

That has been my experience with muck in three ponds I have been involved with cleaning out anyway, for what it is worth.

Here is a link to the thread about cleaning out my son's old pond.

Some various pictures of the muck and dam after if interested.

Reclaiming a 50 year old pond

I did this when I had one of my cattle pools cleaned out. Track hoe dug it out and the dozer pushed it behind the dam. Contractor didn't want to doze it because the muck would be hard to work with while wet but I insisted. His operator did a decent job but it still needs work.