Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Sand Pit

Has anyone ever setup a sand pit to dig their pond? Has anyone seen any smaller scale sand pit equipment for a personal pond?

My area is so sandy that it would be a way for me to accomplish my goal of having a deeper pond and not paying someone $20k to come in and dig my existing pond out. Plus I can sell the sand or give it to whoever wants to come and get it.

ALthough it's hard work, dredging is cheap, fast, and reliable if you have somewhere to dump the spoils. You will probably need very long runs of large hose, and that's expensive. You could pump the spoils directly into dump trucks, but all that water is not good for them.

Then, there's the question of of whether your pond will hold water. Sand and gravel veins can drain a pond lickety split in dry spells.

Mike :

I have looked to try and find a thread (I know its there) about a sand/gravel pit pond in NY or NE that has pics and great info (even has a pic of the dragline). No luck -- someone else see if they can find it for Mike. I will try again if no one recalls where it is.

Mike, I really, really like sand pits. Many of the ones I've seen have a very steady level of ground water. However, we also have many in this area that are completely dry or go dry periodically.

In every case, these pits have been constructed by people in the sand/gravel business. I suggest you talk to people in this business and come up with some sort of arrangement with them rather than try and do this yourself.

Mike:

If you have good aggregate or sand and have a pit operator nearby, maybe you could license your area to remove and sell the sand. Do you have a clay liner base underneath the sand to hold the ground water? In my case, I have a 20 acre lake made from removing aggregate below the ground water level until they hit the clay base holding in the water. I hope this helps.

Rowly

Rowly.....that is a good question. In one of my other threads, I mentioned talking to NRCS. They came to my pond and talked about the possibilites. The gentleman told me that the water table is always high in the area I live in. I also looked at satellite images of my area. A nice size pond was dug about 1\4 mile from my house and has plenty of water in it. Upon investigation it was dug down into the groundwater and is holding so far even with our drought. Rain the forcast...up to one inch possible.

Mike - up here, they mine sand in locations that sound like yours by using a dragline. They can actually get pretty deep into the groundwater table. I don't know much about this, but several of the sand pits around here are 14 feet deep, at least.

Mike and Dave;

Depth is very possible, it all depends on how deep the clay liner is that is holding the water table in place?. In my case, a drag line couldn't be used....only a large escavator...therefore my lake depth is from 4' to 12' or so but mostly 6'-7' or less but my water table is approx. 2' higher in the spring than the heat of the summer period..Think of a clay liner as a saucer holding in the water.......once you dig into the water table and remove the aggregate the by-product is open water....the only determining factor is how far down before the water table and the clay meet...and the clay moves up and down throughout the areas. Once a pit operator hits clay he stops digging and moves forward whether its 2' below water or 10' or more. The only real think is that the pit operator pays me to dig my lake.......thus I have approx 20 acres of surface water at this point without paying one cent, although I'm forced into receiving monthly aggregate cheques if sold by the pit operator.

Rowly

Rowly

Rowly

I talked to a neighbor of the guy with the pond and plan to talk to the owner soon. He had a guy with a 60' hoe come in and dig his pond. The neighbor thought they went down as far as 40'. That sounds a little crazy but I will find out when I talk to the owner. This depth was not required to hit water. Only a few feet down to hit water. I would say any depth over 15 feet here is a waste of money. Are his cows going to get water from the pond if it drops 20 feet?? Not unless they can fly back up out of the hole.

Rowly.....do they force you to take those cheques...HA !!!

Rowly -- you obviously know far more than me about sand and gravel operations. We do see our sand/gravel pits go up and down with moisture conditions, too. Thinking of one pond just north of town, I've seen it as deep as 12 feet during a wet spring, and as low as 8 feet during late summer in a dry period (drought). It has never winterkilled, though -- I assume because of the shallow ground water movement through the pit.