We had a very bad experience with a leaking lake. New lake that was finished last year and would not fill. We looked into everything including ESS-13. I researched it and found it to be basically a surfactant and polymer. The basis of the fix is to allow soils to better mix and establish a more uniform distribution of partical size so that the effective pore size is reduced. The polymer acts to bind the soil together once mixed. This still requires having the right blend of clays and fine sand particles to work. At best it was deemed to be a way to slow the leak, not fix it.
Well, 1 year and 4200 truck loads of clay later, we have a sealed lake that is now 1/2 full after only 2 months of impounding water. IMHO, clay and a packer seem like the way to go.

Mike