Hello to everyone, I'm new here and am a total newbie when it comes to ponds.

I purchased a 5 acre piece of ground a few years back and it had this little pond on it. (maybe 1/10 of an acre) I think it was most likely a septic lagoon when it was built, but that was well over 30-40 years ago and there are no records. The house has been gone for at least a decade.

Anyway, i have cleared most of the brush and trees from the dam and around the pond and am seeing ducks, frogs and even some small fish in the pond.

What I would like to do is add some height to the dam and dig out some dirt on the other side to make this pond a little larger and a little deeper. Most of the 5 acres drains to this pond and it has never gone dry in the 5 years I have owned it. For the past 2 years, it has regularly been over flowing the dam and starting to cut a channel in the dam.

I have access to nearly unlimited clay from a nearby residential development. They are willing to bring truckloads of clay to me from the foundations they are digging out.

My questions:

1. What do I need to consider when adding to the dam? I'm assuming I need to clear any vegetation and try to compact the clay as much as possible when adding.
2. There is no spillway or drain pipe currently. What would be my best solution here?
3. Do I need to dig out any muck from the pond now, or can I just skip doing that?

I am in the Kansas City, MO area.

My goal for the pond is just to have a nice pond to enjoy. I don't fish (I am allergic). I'm fine with some fish to help keep the pond healthy but wont be fishing.

Thanks for any help. I really don't know where to start right now. Any guidance is appreciated.

Picture was taken standing on the dam, looking south/southwest.

#1, Erosion control on the dam. Emergency spillway would be better with an overflow/drain pipe probably best but hard to do on an existing structure that old.
To add material to the dam I believe the top portion would have to be cut down some and a core trench dug into existing structure. Depending on how far down it needed to go, possibly a flow-through pipe could be engineered at that point.
Finding an experienced contractor would be a good decision and I would recommend you have the muck cleaned out, as time goes with no treatment/management the bottom sediments can build very quickly and water quality is affected by that.
When you get to the point of a finished pond, I can think of many options you could consider that would keep bugs/larva under control and possibly put a little coin in your pocket if you choose a forage species only and allow trapping or do that part yourself and sell the forage species while still enjoying the entire pond.

Welcome KCFLY. Let me start off by saying this is I'm no expert. Just from the looks of the picture I would say this wasn't a septic lagoon. I could be wrong ( happens a lot). Normally they are built with a damn on all sides so they don't have a watershed. The only water going into would be from the damn and surface area and the in flow pipe. They build them like that so they don't overflow (nobody wants poo floating around lol). I hope this helps a little bit.

Do you know how deep it is now? I should say that the pros will know more than me, but I would worry that if the original dam didn't get a good core trench that it might leak when it gets more head pressure. If you have the budget? I was thinking maybe remove some of the back side of the dam and cut a new core trench and build up from there.

Hello and thanks for replying to my thread.

It is strange, but there are several septic lagoons in this area that have a watershed. I believe there was a septic tank that then went to the pond. So there shouldn't have ever been any poo floating around.

Any thoughts on how to get the erosion under control? I was thinking I could put an overflow pipe into the channel that has been cut and then cover it with lots of expansive clay to seal it back up.

If I had to I could run the pipe down the backside of the damn into an area where the erosion would be much easier to control and less of a problem.

I see pretty much everyone is suggesting I hire a contractor.

I'd really like to tackle this project, I just need some insight on how to do so. I've got the time and a patient wife.

If there's just no way to make this a DIY project, it will probably not happen.

Thanks to everyone that has read and replied in the thread.

What kind of equipment do you have? I tackled mine myself. I have a thread about it tag in my signature line. I have a 33hp kubota with a tiller. It has taken me 2 years so far. Besides just being able to say "I DID THiS MYSELF". I could have hired the pond guy in the area for under 1000 dollars to did what I did. Your pond is even smaller. I mainly drained mine halfway down then dug next to it and joined them when full and raised the damn 2-3 feet.

That looks like an old cow pond to me.

You can do it yourself. If I did it, anybody can do it.

Read this to get an idea of what you're getting yourself into if you decide to go for it.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=500175#Post500175