scsims,
I don't understand her logic of waiting until November "so it can refill withot drying out too much".
Presumably, if you drain it, you want it to dry out so you can get a dozer in to repair the problem. I don't know about your weather, but certainly around here you do not want to schedue any pond work in November or thereafter due to wet weather conditions.
Draining should be the last option on the table, only to be executed after the other options previously discussed have been tried without success, IMHO.
