Two weeks of pumping. Goal is to the bottom of the inlet pipe. I'm hoping 1 more week will get me half way and might turn it off for awhile and see what it does. Plus, I'm hating to see my electric bill this month. :-) Pump is still going good. I turn it off once a week to go down and wipe the drain sock off then plug her right back in.
Thanks Fishin! I did do a calculation awhile back using the current gpm vs pond size and it seemed to be right on. Keep in mind though, I am kind of guessing on pond size based off of sat image from planimeter. Also, my gpm measurement wasn't scientific. Just a five gallon bucket test. But I do have some data to share that might cause some debate. :-) Evaporation rates and new pond seepage. About a week ago I guess? I had to turn pump off so I decided to let it sit during the day for 12 hours off. From 6 am to 6pm the pond went down exactly 9/16". At first I thought that was pretty bad but the weather that day was extreme and i will will allow just a little for seepage in to dry dam and surrounding soils. It was 97 full sun all day. 10 mph wind with 15 to 20 gusts and 40 percent humidity. So with all of that said, I don't think that was too bad but nowhere close to proving anything at this point really. I might have already posted this but not sure, when I first pumped in to this pond before knowing for sure if it leaked I got it to about two feet or so above where it is now. That was pumping for a bout 3 months straight at 18gpm. Eventually it got a to a point the 18 gpm would not raise it anymore. So that tells me at a point about 2 feet where I am now, the pond used to leak 18gpm. So I think that is a good benchmark to keep in mind when I post more numbers. At 18 gpm and .6 acre the pond should drop 1.6" in a day. So if I get it above where it was and I am not dropping 1.6", it is better. How much? We will see I guess. :-) I am not getting my hopes up this time. This pond has burned me before. :-)
If you use the site below to calculate evap rates for .6 acre pond, I actually lost less that test day than it says I should of but I don't know if its accurate.
Good to hear you are still gaining pond elevation. When ballpark calculations are the best you can do, it is nice to have the data still fit within the ballpark.
I agree that the 9/16" loss doesn't sound too bad.
Since that pumping break was made subsequent to the water elevation rising, some of your water loss was due to the wicking of water out of the pond and into the dry soil that had just recently come into contact with water.
You can easily observe this phenomenon once you resume filling the pond. Depending on the clay content of your banks, you will probably see wet soil roughly 1-8" above the water elevation.
It's still going up, slowly but surely. About 2" a day now. Which is about right for a .7 acre surface area and 30 gpm going in. It is going much slower now that it has gained size. I'm guessing it is about .6 to .7 acre right now with a 10 to 11 feet depth. So, still just have to wait and see. I think we decided to let the pump run one more week until next Friday, that will be 4 weeks. I think it should be around 100 to 135 dollars for electricity costs for that. Not bad considering that is like 1.2 million gallons of water. Attaching some more photos. One is a new drone photo that you can see how much it is filling in. Others are from different angles around the pond to give everyone a better idea of what we have going on. There are also a couple of my well/aerator cover. Thought someone might like the idea. It does a nice job of hiding everything and does ok for sound. Big culvert with chicken wire screwed to outside then coated with bag cement by hand. Bought the lid for it then used an old pallet for the top. Looks like an old well siting there. Update tomorrow for the weekly pic. Then one more week of pumping, then my anxiety starts. :-) When I do these types of projects I always like to keep Edison's quote in mind.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"
3 weeks of pumping. Some of that grass is in well over 3 feet of water, not sure how its still alive and standing. One more week and I'll start posting results.
