At a previous house, a previous owner built a liner pond (swamp!!) that was about 25 x 50 with an average depth of about 3 feet. Talk about looking like a lined pond! It was worse than ugly, plus it leaked. He used swimming pool liner over newspaper.
I drained it twice using two separate 50-foot pieces of flexible 1-1/2-inch sump pump hose. It was actually quite easy.
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I'd tie the lower end of the hose into a tree so that it was higher than the banks of the pond. I then poured a few buckets of water into the pond end of the hose. Once it held a fair amount of water, I'd throw the pond end of the hose into the pond. Then I'd cut down the lower end from the tree. It would slowly start to siphon, but would quickly gain volume. As I recall, using two hoses, took a little over a week to drain.
Here is a picture of a red shouldered hawk watching as the life was literally being drained from his meal source. One of the drain hoses runs into the water right next to the post he is sitting on. The other end of the hose goes into the woods, and down the edge of the mountain.
This pond was so ugly, that the second time I drained it, we bulldozed out as much liner as possible, and buried the rest of it.
Ken
