FishinRod you're absolutely right on the contamination and I've got my eye on it. We had to do a Baseline Environmental Assessment when we purchased the property. We had the environmental consultant take an extra soil sample down to 20' depth between the pond and the dump, and it came back clean. But I still plan to send some water samples to the lab before we dig the pond too large.

I've got a few updates to provide on the pond project. I called to confirm with our dragline guy that we're still on his schedule for next summer. He informed me his son left the business, so he no longer uses his dragline for ponds.

Since our group has decided to prioritize a pole barn, and a few guys want to start building their mini cabins, hiring a pond professional to dig is not in the cards as we don't have the funds to build infastructure and dig a pond at once. Catch 22 is we still need part of the pond dug to get dirt to build up an area for the buildings.

So Plan B for the pond is to rent a Bobcat E165 excavator (36" or 42" bucket, max reach around 28 ft) for a week at a time over the course of the next few years and see what we can get done. I have a buddy who is a heavy equipment operator who said he'd run it for us in the winter when he's usually off of a job. He doesn't have any pond experience, so I'm hoping I can use everything I've learned from everyone on the forum to guide him on what we need to do.

Which leads me to a few more questions if you all don't mind:

1. Aside from having to pump the water out every time, is there a downside to digging the pond in sections over time instead of all at once? I know we'll have to do some careful planning to make sure we don't screw ourselves for the next dig as far as making sure we have a location to dig from and move dirt. We plan to purchase whatever size pump is needed, the entire property flows away to the East so I don't think getting rid of water will be a problem, plus we have a smaller pond to the East that can take some water too.

2. Let's say we pump the water out and the pump is keeping up, but the excavated area won't dry up enough to get a dozer in there to create a 3:1 slope due to the water table. Is the only option at this point to make the slope with the excavator as you're drawing the bucket in, one bucket width at a time?

3. If we add a shallow bay off to the side of the pond that is say 4-8’ water depth after the 3:1 slope, and it gets weeds due to the shallower depth, will these weeds then be a source of weeds that will easily spread to the rest of the deeper pond? Or would they stay contained in the shallow bay mostly? The purpose of the bay would be more surface area for fish and kayaking without the extra cost of digging to full depth, and a shallower more natural area for wood duck habitat (we're helping to mentor our high school outdoors club kids on our property and a wood duck habitat project was brought up). I've read that if you try to combine pond goals (shallow wildlife vs. deep fish) you're gonna lose, but wasn't sure the specifics.

We're planning to rent a mini ex this upcoming Monday to dig some test holes in the pond area, see if there's any clay at some point hopefully. I'll provide an update on what we find.