Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - How to dig out a settlement pond?

Hey PB team. Long time lurker and learner (mostly about fish populations/management), first time poster.

It's a two pond system consisting of a 2 car garage sized pond that catches water off a deep ravine which overflows down a stream into a larger 1/2 acre pond. I was told this was professionally installed a long time ago- I've owned it 16 years. I assume this first, smaller, pond is a "settlement" pond just to catch debris - it's surrounded by woods, the larger pond is not. Maybe it went dry a time or three but it seems to hold water and/or is wet all year long.

This first settlement pond is now "full" of mud, leaves, and sticks and I need to clean it out.

1. Is "settlement" pond the right terminology for a pond like I'm describing?
2. Perusing pondboss it seems like both ponds almost certainly have a liner.
3. It seems like I'll be wasting a lot of time digging by hand so I'd prefer to use a backhoe but then I risk destroying the liner...

what say the bosses?

Still slowly mucking it out with my compact tractor. All the remaining mud is a bit above the bottom portion I already have cleaned out, so it should drain, if any free water remains. I estimate I have about 1.5 cubic yards to go. It's slow going with a compact tractor. Scoop out a little and wait for the exposed hard bottom to dry. Get a little more the next day.. Good thing we have a dry spell. If I get enough drying, I may be done tomorrow evening. The upper three fourths of the pond is dry and dusty.

It would be odd for a settling pond (forebay) to have a liner because if it went dry during dry periods it would be easier to clean out. I have a small forebay on my second pond, and when it comes time to clean it out, I plant to use a backhoe. If your settling pond leaked badly, what would be the downside for you?

I'd dig by hand in the very shallow area of the settlement pond to see if it has a liner, whether a PVC or clay liner. If it's a PVC liner, then I'd just bite the bullet, dig it out with an excavator and put in another geotex liner by BTL. For the help it does with the 1/2 ac pond, it's cheap insurance.

If it's a clay liner, you can dig the settlement pond out with an excavator (do it with no water in it, even if you have to pump it dry). Watch the color of the sediment that comes out, don't dig deep with each scoop. Scrape to make a pile, scoop that pile out of the pond. When the color of the dirt coming out changes, that's most likely the clay liner that you have reached.

Our 1/4 acre pond loses several feet of water depth each winter when there is no irrigation water inflow. We normally have a long hot dry period of a few months in late winter and spring. The pond bottom muck dries sufficiently that I've been able to enter the pond with my compact tractor and "harvest" muck for our gardens.

I'm very cautious to keep my wits about me and not sink the tractor in the couple feet of muck that has accumulated. I've pulled about 10 cubic yards out over the years. That's not much of course but our gardens thrive.

Only once did I "stick" the machine in the bottom crud. I wished I'd had a winch then! We hooked up my Tundra to the tractor and eased the whole works backwards with multiple sighs of relief.

Muck dries much much faster out in this arid climate I'm certain.

Impressive work John!

I hope you get just enough dry weather to polish off your muck - and then some rains when it is time to re-fill your pond.

P.S. I think "Plateau of Muck" sounds like a great name for a punk band.

Our muck is very dense, very dark when saturated, and dries to a lighter color. It sets up into hard clumps.
I till it into parent soil, clay based, while adding gobs of other organic matter including wood shavings litter from our chicken house, dredged pond weeds, elodea primarily, even deciduous tree wood chips. I'm an arborist so I have a big badass wood chipper.