Well it's been two days since I turned off the pump, and have good and bad news, I guess. Bad news it is still going down. Good news is you folks are going to get season 3 of the $#@& show. :-). So right now we are in a drought so keep that in mind. Two days in a row I have lost 1.25". So, .25 for evaporation and I would say 1" to seepage. I went down to the spring behind the house where I was pumping 6gpm when we first started filling. It appears to be running no faster than it was when pond was empty. This is a good sign because that spring has a fork in it. Before when the pond was really full, you would see the left side flow much faster than right. Now the left has maybe 1 gpm flowing. I am attaching a photo I already posted with some additions. The black lines are the springs that are about 30 ft below pond area. You can see the fork I mentioned. Now for the next part. When I was working behind the dam, prepping a ditch for the new outlet. I figured why use 8" pipe all the way down the hill if I can just keep it on top. No clogging that way either. Well I graded everything up and a few days later I noticed a wet spot in the newly graded dry dirt. Went down there and there was a crawdad hole but I wanted to see what was below so I dug down about 18" and it was all good clay so I covered it back up but it came back without the crawdad hole. Now, there is a spring behind the dam that has been there for years because there are some old blocks that someone used to dam it up years ago for livestock I assume. Blocks look at least 75 years old. Years ago I traced that spring by digging it up and it appeared to come from the hill adjacent to dam. I tapped that spring and I send about 2gpm spring water down to the small pond I lined. Now I know my builder would have cored the dam but I wonder if he didn't go deep enough? I think it is pressing down on the bottom of the pond and going in to the spring. I have ordered some fluorescent dye and I want to confirm this before I go any further. I drained this pond and reworked back in 2015? After letting it dry for quite awhile there was a spot close to where inside toe of dam meets floor that would not dry out, so I just refilled it because I was able to get some of the muck out of that area and it appears to be solid clay, but that doesn't mean there wasn't sand a few feet below that.
Possible options.
1. First trace dye to confirm.
2. Drain and line entire pond. A lot of work, especially if it doesn't need it.
3. Drain and partially line if I can pin point location of seepage. The tarps have seemed to stop all leakage in to the spring south of the pond. It also seemed to slow the leak down from the original 1.6" 24hr drop to about an inch.
4. Contact TJ and try the SeekLeak.
Will update when I get any new info. I am also posting pics of the ditch i dug and the wet spot I now have. This is the first time i have seen this wet spot. I think i will use it as a detector. I will monitor pond depth vs. moisture content of spot maybe. I wonder if i closed the easiest path for water to go to now it is being forced out something more dense?
The circle in the one photo is the wet spot behind dam now.
