You have gotten a lot of good advice and you appear to have formulated a plan of attack. Everybody except the Army Core lady wants to be a good guy, that�s how they get elected/appointed and stay there. Use that to your advantage, you need to be the victim of an overbearing bureaucracy that blindly administers the law in a heavy handed, officious way. Which is what she sounded like �No ponds in my district!� �But, I haven�t submitted my application�, �Ok, submit ,then I�ll say no.� It worked for me.
I would also suggest that you visit another district office and just chat with the officer in charge about general policies regarding pond building, approach as if you were just contemplating buying a piece of property and building a pond. There just may be a valid reason why there are no ponds being built in your area.
