Great advice. I'm not yet sure if we have much clay on our property because it's entirely wooded at this stage, but the county I live in has enormous amounts of high quality red clay, and as there's so much development I should be able to get a lot of it for free (but will have to pay trucking costs, which could add up).

As soon as we have the area for the pond cleared, I'll start ripping out stumps and will try to get as much red clay as possible delivered to the site so I can start spreading, filling holes, and building the dam.

I understand the stream bed will be great habitat for fish, so I don't want to fill that in, but as it's exposed fractured shale bedrock I'm concerned it will leak. Although I suppose the stream seems to hold water, most of the time...probably best to cover it with clay and build other habitat.

The consultant I contacted actually didn't know the site or the bedrock. He quoted about about $15k in tests (digging the core, testing water flow, testing soil), then about $150k for construction. I suppose he thought they'd be digging the whole 5 acre pond. I was shocked at the price, but there are so many rich people around here I suppose they make up most of his clientele.

I'm seeing a lot of references on the forum to NRCS (I had to google what that is). I do have their pond construction booklet. Do they provide any other resources that we might find useful? I'm not quite sure where to go regarding soil tests, etc.