Hello, all. First post here. Wish I found you all under better circumstances.
So I am in Southern California high desert. I recently moved to a property that had a 55' diameter, 2-6 foot deep seasonal pond in place. During rainy weeks, it fills up about 10% and holds water until it evaporates. Pretty decent clay soil with blue clay about ten feet deep. I decided to try and make it a year round pond and fill it and stock with fish and duck. During my research I initially planned a liner, but was getting quotes at $15k plus. I settled on and bought bentonite to do it. Quickly found out that professional pond builders wanted to charge the same to do the bentonite. Decided to do it myself (because I am occasionally an idiot).
Long story short, I mixed in 18,000 pounds of bentonite into a mixed blanket about 6" deep all the way around and spread the best I could with a small Home Depot backhoe. About 2x what online calculators suggested was needed for the size. I did not get to use a sheepsfoot or alternate compaction machine, mainly because I didn't feel comfortable riding the side walls, and I knew the bottom is already pretty solid. Probably the biggest mistake I made. Since doing that I have filled it with almost 90,000 gallons of water. This was 3 days ago. Since then I have lost the equivalent of probably 10,000 gallons. About an inch or two a day.
I have a separate runoff hole dug about 15 feet away to catch silt and whatnot during rain, and a culvert to direct overflow to the pond. Since filling the pond, this runoff hole has filled with about an inch of water. Obviously seeping from the pond. I have dug test holes between the two, and the ground is pretty saturated with water that pools in the test holes about 12" lower than the top of the pond level.
So my question(s). How long does sodium bentonite take to actually absorb and become waterproof? Is this amount of water loss normal in the first few days? Do I just continue to monitor and see what happens, or keep trying to top it off with water trucks for the first week? Would a bentonite slurry, granules, or SoilFloc help in this situation? Is there a fix for this or did I just throw away $6,000 on water that will probably keep getting lost?
Hi and welcome to the forum. I help folks deal with leaking ponds nationwide and my time is free to the Pond Boss forum. Feel free to reach out - we could review your options together on a call. Happy to help however I can.
Thanks again TJ. You were a huge help and I really appreciate you taking out the time to hop on a phone call with me. I appreciate your suggestions and honest feedback in regard to my options and expectations.
