hey:) I'm new here, recently working as land manager on a site in Andalucia, southern Spain. We have aquaducts (acequias) running through the top of the property, with constant water flow year round (from snowy mountains). Our farm has a gate in the aquaduct opening to a channel leading the water down into the valley, and straight out the other end (erosion galore). To make better use of this abundance, and to prevent further erosion of the channel, we are planning to build 3 retention ponds. Two are a few meters outside the main water movement channel - we can control how much water goes in - and one is basically in the pathway of the main channel slightly to one side so it doesnt get the full momentum force. Each pond is about 3m in diameter and 2m deep. We dug test slices, and the majority of the soil is loamy sand, but there is some clay in the lower layers.
Because there is quite a lot of water and movement going on, I am wondering about how to make strong, leak proof ponds. We have at our disposal lots of big heavy stones and about 400kg of bentonite clay. Wondering about materials but also structure for the pond sides and banks, and what vegetation to use to hold them in steady. Any suggestions?
