Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Locating leaks in a pond?

Besides seeing wet spots around the downstream side of a dam, is there any other indicators where a leak might be? Or, are there any ideas on how to find a leak? By the way, I'm not seeing any wet spots around the dam side.

I have a small (maybe 1/8 acre) pond that has been about half (4 foot) full but it empties to about 2-3 feet deep after heavy rains. It takes several weeks to drain down. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm located in sw Pa.

if the pond is new, then it may just be absorbing/soaking in to the sides. that is common and takes a while to fully saturate surrounding earth.

Thanks for the reply Scott.
I built my pond with a fel, it was slow but kinda fun. I dug and then built the dam side up in lifts of 6-8 inches, compacting as I drove over it. Mostly all a shale/clay mix. I removed all the top soil before starting. I dug down until I encountered a solid layer of shale. I put about a foot of shale/clay back over the solid rock layer and compacted it in. Makes my pond about 7 foot deep if it ever reaches full fill to the overflow.

I have a 1/4 acre pond 11 feet deep that leaks down about 30 inches then stops or nearly stops. I have not been able to locate the source of the leak as there is water below the dam after a heavy rain regardless of the pond. The water lingers until the pond drains about 30 inches, but it is all over. Some leaks are impossible to trace.

Your leak could be coming through the dam, or under the dam, or from the bottom of the basin, then surfacing below the dam. I have determined it's almost impossible to trace a leak like that.

Shale-clay ponds around here almost always leak, with some going completely dry every year.

It takes several WEEKS to drain down 2 feet? Even with a minor evaporation rate of 1/4" a day and several warm, breezy and lower humidity days taking an inch or more, are you sure it is a "leak"? Ever have ice on a full pond and then the ice collapsed from water loss?

ALL earthen bottom ponds will leak some. You'll have to compare a marked 5 gallon bucket to the rate of pond loss to know if it is evaporation or actual leakage in the pond.

Could it be a water table pond? I have one in front of the house that is heavy yellow clay from surface all the way down. It follows the water table. It may drop 3 feet or more over several weeks in dry weather in summer. It gets a small amount of runoff and will fill quickly in a heavy rain but if it is just a heavy summer storm that fills it and the water table is low, it will drop again. OTOH, a series of lighter rains that saturate the ground and raises the water table will often cause it to raise a few inches days after the rain stops. Hard to figure out. About 300 feet away is my larger pond and it never varies over a foot no matter what.

Sounds like all ponds have their own personalities. My pond is over 2 years old and It has never filled to the overflow outlet. I have piped roof downspouts into it
and have a deep well pump that pumps about 10 gal/min for 25 min each hour. I have talked with teejay regarding Soil Floc but understand it works best under at least a 4 foot head... which I don't have right now. Soooo, holding off on that treatment for now.

I'm still looking for that blankety blank leak (s).

Soilfloc didn't work for me either, because the leak in the dam is at about 30 inches from full pool on up. That is, the leak head is from zero to 30 inches. I am thinking of renting and running a vibratory roller over the dam many times.

Just wish there was someway to locate a leak. Or leaks. Any dye would just disperse and then color all the water. The seepage out of the pond is so slow it isn't like a bathtub emptying. Maybe put something in the water that is slightly negative by weight and see if it migrates to the leak. Hey, I'm getting frustrated here with my two foot deep pond.

At what size or age do cc spawn and about what water temperature.