Greetings,
I would like to hear your thoughts and advice on an issue I am having with my year old .5 acre fish pond.
The pond was built during a dry spell in our area, pond is roughly 14ft to the overflow pipe. The slope is steep, about 1.5:1 on the dam sides and maybe 2:1 on water inlet side. The pond collects water from the surrounding hills. Pond was constructed around August/September, but we did not see much rain until February/March following year. Native clay/soil has been used
During the filling I have noticed signs of soil erosion to a point where I can see limestone in some areas, mostly at the inlet side, and some on the dam sides. After filling up maybe 1/2 way, it dropped to 1/4, filled up half way again and, by fall of last year, dropped down to appx. 5 feet. During a major dry spell (appx 60 days of no rain ) water level dropped two 3.5ft at the deepest due to evaporation. Pond started filling up again after hard rain beginning of February in 2025 and after two hard rainfalls if filled up to appx 1 ft below the overflow pipe. It is March 11, we haven't seen rain for 3.5 weeks and I am down to 9ft of water at the deepest and loosing appx 1"in per day, but the rate of loss is slowing down as water level drops.
My thoughts: The base and lower section of the pond is sufficient to hold 6ft of water at the deepest but dams are the issue, where the pond is super leaky in the upper 1/2 or 2/3s of the pond due to either erosion, poor clay quality, or poor compaction. Looks ugly, big dirt hole with 1/3 of water
I understand that best solution would be to drain and rebuild the pond, bring in better clay, fix the inlet and apply erosion control measures but... I already have fish in the pond that I put in last year in the spring that I would hate to lose... I would like a chance to repair before rebuilding.
A thought that I have is to keep the base as clay, as it seems to hold water well, and wait until we hit the dry spell, water evaporates to the lowest and install RPE liner from the water edge to top of the pond. Basically have a hybrid system. Does this seem feasible? Or an idea that I should pursue? To procure 12ftX500ft liner and install is a lot cheaper than to line the entire pond. If I repair the walls with clay, I'm afraid it will not guarantee water retention. I would appreciate any comments or advice on this. Thanks!
