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I dug some more test pits at our property this weekend.

One of the good low locations had nice sandy clay that was getting more clay-rich with depth. Certainly enough clay to seal a pond.

I then moved up to some higher ground where the "upper end" of a 1-acre pond would be located. After cutting about 10" of top soil, the location was 100% clay. I got down to max. depth of 8.5' for my mini-excavator, and was still digging in clay. The clay sides of my pit were smooth and polished and packed very hard.

Question for the experts:

If I finished a pond in that clay soil, I think it would be a very long time before any aquatic plants began to thrive in the pond. The pond will be sourced with pumped water from an adjacent groundwater pond, so there will essentially be zero surface water inputs of silt and nutrients.

Will this pond only grow FA, or be exceedingly low productivity?

Do I need to build some nice flats around the pond shores at a depth of 3' and re-cover those areas with 6-12" of top soil to get aquatic plants growing in the pond to aid all of the organisms at the very bottom of the food chain?

Any experience from managing a similar pond or just any advice would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks, FishinRod.

My property currently has a very very low spot in it that collects crazy water if it rains and it floods all the way to the house being built behind me. The developer claims the area has always been known to flooding so they added a drain pipe under the road. The problem is it was installed was to high so for the water to even go in there it has to flood a good bit. So I’m thinking on making it a pond and having the drain overflow to it o the pipe how would do it so that all the runoff went into the pond but isn’t to low for the overflow to go into the pipe since it’s very high

Obviously a contentious ruling for some and a relief for others. I'm among the camp who thought the EPA and Army Corp of Engineers had too much authority and were trying to continually push the envelop even further. I seem to remember reading some stories from forum members about issues with ponds even.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/politics/epa-waters-of-the-united-states-rule-climate/index.html

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/29/1196654382/epa-wetlands-waterways-supreme-court

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/29/climate/epa-wetlands-protection-rollback.html