Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Pond is in baaaaad shape

So I bought this property about this time last year here in a rural part of west TN. The pond level stayed at one spot for a while, I caught some catfish out of it, etc. etc.. all was well. Well, Back in the spring we had like 13 inches of rain in one day, and it filled the pond to the brim. The 12" overflow culvert was pouring out water like crazy. I was rescuing fish from the overflow area for several hours.

Anyways, what the rain showed me was a bad leak in the levee. it washed out enough to where I can stand in the hole. It's washed out about a 1/3 of the way into the levee from the water itself. There's a spot where you could see running water surface for a sec then go back underground to where it finally resurfaces to run out towards the pasture next to my property. The water level of course drained back down quickly to where the level was before the rain.

Best repair I can come up with being a new pond owner is as follows...

Seeing as how we haven't had any substantial rain in over 2 months, the water level has dropped to a pitiful level. I can walk in the pond to where the leak in the levee is. I'm thinking of renting a small excavator and digging up the dirt where it's washed out, backfilling, and tamping the everlovin snot out of it. I've read about the chemical additives on here, and am wondering if I should tamp that in during the backfill. Also, there's a guy up the road who says he can build a retaining wall in the levee right there where the leak is so I can backfill up against it. This is the only solution i've come up with from just a logical standpoint with experience in dirt work from a construction background but no experience with ponds.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Eggroll, Welcome to the forum! I love tthe screen name!

My first though was-- "Oh no! another DIY'r wanting to repair a serious problem on a dam"!!! In your case with dirt work experience, You could possibly do it. You will want to excavate the washed out area completely. Find a source of GOOD clay to backfill in 6" lifts and compact each layer with at least a good Jumping Jack compactor. Tamping it just won't get the job done. The clay also has to have the proper moisture content to compact properly--it can't be too moist or too dry.

After you get the repair re-filled, tied into the existing good sections of the dam properly and compacted, use some topsoil to recover the repaired area, compact it fairly well also and re-seed it right away to prevent eroision.

Soil amendmants or a retaining wall will not help you here. A repair like this takes some heavy equipment and proper reconstruction or the net big rain could cause the entire repair fail at once---taking out awhatever is below it.

I would suggest using a full size (15K#) track hoe at least for the repair.

What part of West Tn. are you in?

Welcome Eggroll! To expound on what Rex said, you will have to excavate both directions from where the levee (or dam) washed out until you reach the properly compacted clay core. That's what you have to tie together with good clay that you'll compact with a jumping jack tamper, in no more than 6" lifts. If you don't find a good clay core in your dam (levee) then you've got a bigger job ahead of you.

I'm assuming that the 12" culvert wasn't big enough to handle the amount of rain and runoff that you got, and the dam washed out in the emergency spillway area. If that's the case, then as long as the water is down, I'd remove the existing culvert and install a larger one, properly compacting the clay around it, and also installing anti-seep collars on it. That will take some pressure off of your emergency spillway.

I'm in a little town called burlison in the northwestern corner of Tipton county.

It is washed out a little under the culvert, but that's not the area I'm talking about. I had a guy tell me to take the culvert out all together and just have a low spot in the dam for runoff purposes. I think the culvert would be sufficient, it's just that we've never had such a serious rain like that. I've never seen rainfall like that here.

So since I have the excavator experience digging ditches as an electrician, I'll let my better half run the tamp during the backfill heheh. And I'll just tell the neighbor to forget about the retaining wall. It hasn't rained in a while here, I'm hoping it will compact properly.

What can I seed there that will germinate this time of year to keep erosion Down? What else can I do to prevent erosion there til a good root system fro
The turfgrass gets established?

You could use erosion control matting, it does a good job.

Annual Rye, wheat and oats have the best chance but it's close to being too late.

I wouldn't rely on an earthen spillway to protect the pond from too much water. The water will eventually start to eat it's way thru the earthen overflow and you'll end up in the same situation you are in right now.

It is getting late in the year. Matts and Oats/Rye/Wheat is about your only option at this late date.

After spending all of yesterday's daylight and about 10 hours of today's daylight working, I believe I have gotten the pond leak fixed. I rented a mini excavator, along with a gas powered tamp. I dug from the point where the leak was going into the dam, 3 feet lower, and about 3 feet each way of the point where it started to leak. Then backfilled while moistening the soil with a garden hose. We basically ran the tamp non-stop while sprinkling dirt in there. We pulled some trees out along with most of the roots. We pulled the old culvert out and made a nice tamped bed for it to lay on and packed dirt all around it. We worked our booties off.

Point being, all I gotta do now is get some kind of erosion control system in place and wait for rain.