Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Loamy Soils

I'm looking at a site for a 10+ acre dug pond. The site N of Houston is mostly flat. Different locations show combinations of Splendora, Waller, and Tarkington. These are loamy soils. I used SOILWEB to get the soil profiles.

The land has marshes in the area and an existing dug pond of 1/10 acre is currently full. I suspect a high water table.

There are other ponds in the area.

Any thoughts? I need to make an offer on the property and will have a hard time meeting with the local NRCS folks due to the holidays.

Be careful that he "marshes" are not protected wetlands that you cannot touch (unless you like them as they are).

One idea...make the offer, if you really like the property, but put in the offer a contingency that a 10 acre pond must be viable and acceptable to the pertinent government agencies. You will also probably need to provide that you will make the necessary inquiries at your expense before the agreed closing date.

The marshes are protected. They are on the neighboring property.

I primed my realtor for a contingency, but if it gets competitive a clean offer is always better.

True but do you want the property if it turns out you can't have the pond?

I'm hoping somebody has experience with these types of soils. Lots of ponds around the area. Gotta be some pond boss folks with experience with these soils?

Hopefully, one of the Texas guys will chime in on that. I would still worry about RAH's concern. Things like, would the pond steal the water shed from the marsh on the neighboring property?

Good Luck! It's Christmas time. I hope Santa brings you the perfect property!

Bill D.

Suggest u contact Mike Otto here through a PM. I bet he has built several in that part of Texas.

The conservation marsh is small, 10 acres or so, and 1000 feet from the property line. No worries there.

Got the word from NRCS. These soils are inappropriate for my application.

The water table is high and this allows the other ponds in the area. But this WT will vary too much for my needs. A large pond will need watershed levys and this soil won't work for that.

I will keep looking for a suitable property.

I think most of the delay was caused by the holidays and a change of personnel in the local NRCS office.

I live in Sutherland Springs tx and the soil is sand but if you go down a couple feet it's clay.... if you got clay you can dig a pond. There is ponds all in my area some hold water some don't. Think it just depends on how good and experienced your dozer man is. My guy has dug alot of ponds in my area and has a d6 dozer charges$ 95 an hr. I'm sure I could find cheaper but you get what u pay for. Maybe a 10 acre lake might not work but maybe a 2 or 3 acre pond will work.

I think it probably isn't worth the risk. A high water table sounds good but I've recently been through a 5 year drought and seen my ponds all but disappear. I'd look for a loamy soil with good runoff areas. The Houston area generally gets good rains, sometimes more than good.

Are you sure you want to start out with 10+ acres? That size is a tremendous amount of work and expense to maintain.

I'm retired and plan to build a house on the pond. Maintenance won't be a problem.

The water table is an issue. This time of year any hole will fill with water, but things will change with the next drought.

Drought? We went through a 5 year one at Bowie. And then, the floods came.

Here's another idea:
If there is clay beneath the loamy soils, depending on how deep the clay lies, you can excavate to clay, then use that clay to line the basin of your lake (Expense directly related to how much dirt you have to excavate) For smaller ponds and lakes, excavating is viable. Line the entire basin of the pond with good clay, 18-24" deep, compacted with sheepsfoot roller. Don't depend on the water table to fill the lake directly, as that is unpredictable. But, you can dig a sump adjacent to your pond/lake, and pump water from the uprising water table to keep your lake full. We've done that with smaller bodies of water, not necessarily larger lakes.

The private road by the property was made with an excavation from the neighbors proprty. Lots of rock down below, but no clay.

I'm looking farther north. Most of these properties are timber company sales and they don't come on the market too often.