Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Might buy house with seasonal pond - is this bad?

This is my first post to this forum.

We're considering buying this house in southern Chicagoland which has an existing rectangular-shaped (therefore presumably manmade) pond. It's probably around 100 feet by 75 feet and takes up a fair portion of this 1.3 acre property. We know nothing about the pond and haven't been able to talk to the owners yet. This is in an area which possibly floods and there is a big retention pond about half a mile to the south.

We visited the house this summer and the pond was full of water, though still and surrounded by clouds of mosquitoes.

We revisited the house this fall. The pond is empty. The bottom is still somewhat wet and covered in squishy muck. I walked around the edge of the bottom and estimate there's probably 4-6 in of tan-colored muck. So we now know that the pond is about 5-6 feet deep.

The realtor checked with the seller's agent and said yes, this is a "seasonal pond" and always does this. I googled seasonal ponds (or vernal ponds?) and apparently people think they're great - for rainwater drainage, to collect rainwater for farming uses (and we are going to grow some of our own food), and for promoting amphibian and insect life in the absence of fish (not sure we want too many insects!).

I have so many questions I don't know where to start. Does this sound like a nightmare? Is it really intentionally "seasonal" or is it just an unfinished pond? Does it need a liner to keep the water in? If I put a liner in, will the yard flood when it rains? Should I worry about the muck? How can I get rid of the mosquitoes if I can't put fish in?


A few other items:

There's an upside-down J-shaped pipe about 20-30 feet away; we now see that this enters the pond. Is this some kind of overflow pipe? I don't even understand how that would work.

There is also a septic field, not sure where it is but possibly between the house and the pond.

Any tips, advice, or forewarnings about what I might be getting into are appreciated!

Chris

It doesn't seem that it was purposely dug as a vernal pond. Maybe they wanted to raise skeeters. A liner will help hold the water but are pretty expensive. Without an Engineer or someone identifying the topography it is impossible to tell how much water might flood the yard when the pond backs up water. The pipe is probably an overflow. What is downstream? Could the overflow cause a problem to a neighbor or governmental body?

Not sure what kind of septic setup you are talking about but it is quite probable that it is on the 1.3 acres. If the pond floods, it could cause a real problem.

If it were me, and it's not, I would probably not buy.

Welcome to Pond Boss.

If I may offer my South to North translation services, Dave means mosquitos when he says "skeeters."

A seasonal pond has limited enjoyment. But I think you would miss the best parts of pond ownership as in having fish, swimming, floating, etc.

The upside down "J" pipe is likely the vent for the septic tank. The rectangle shaped area could well be the drainage field for the drain laterals. Although "5-6" feet deep is pretty excessive for a septic drain field, it could have been poorly designed, the holding tank may have collapsed, and/or drain laterals could be eroding sub-soils away to help creat the depression.

If it were me, and it's not, I would walk away or do considerable investigation and get all disclosures in writing......ask the owners to answer as many specific written questions as possible and if they refuse, walk away for sure.