Yeah, I'm leaning towards that route. Also, I had a different contractor come out today to give me another estimate. He said he just got finished with a 3 acre pond near Charlotte, NC and before he left, 3 white trucks showed up and told him to get off his equipment immediately. They ended up fining the land owner for not getting a permit. But... that's for a
3 acre pond, and I'm only looking for about half an acre.
For anyone that was following this thread 12 years ago, I did reach out to Asgrd Pndkper (found his website/email address for his business) since he's also from NC, and he said he never ended up getting this pond done. He said he found out he didn't have good soil for a pond so he ended up making an orchard instead. And, he confirmed what I read, in that you don't need a permit if the surface area of the pond is less than an acre and the dam height is less than 15' (however, I read it was 25' so that might be a new policy they added after his inquiry).
Its much easier to ask forgiveness than permission sometimes.
You got that right.
