Brettski,
I read the beginning and last page of that thread.
My guy is doing what you finally had done. They've found good clay and will be laying it into the core. He's got a "strip mine" located "in the pond" that he'll take the clay from and make one continuous core. He uses the excavator to pack it in along with the bulldozer.
Where the problem lies, is the "channel" between the hills of the small valley my dam will be going in, has water. He needs "help" (one guy has done the whole thig so far) to put in the core with the water there.
What I've got is this: A small valley with about 20 acres drainage. It's a very SLIGHT slope to this valley at the pond site. There is water all the time and it raises and lowers. In the "rainy season" I had pools of water on the ground and a small "stream" flowing out. We've been in the worst drought in MANY years, 20?, and the water is about 6 feet underground now.
What the "digger" tells me is this: The sides of the hills are clay. They will hold in the water. The dam will be clay and hold the water. So, all the upstream water will get backed up at the dam and I'll have a pond. I DON'T have a pond now because all that underground water already flowed through the valley. When the dam is complete it will be stopped from flowing through and back up. BTW, MOST of my pond is dug out, the dam is only a few feet higher than the top of the natural "dirt level". So, in reality, just last fall before the drought, the pond site was "full" of underground water right up to the start of the drought.
Like you, I trust him. He comes highly recommended and has done a LOT of local ponds.
