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Hello everyone. I purchased 10 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 20 years ago. The property had a small pond (50 by 50 feet max) that seemed to hold water just fine. It had a spillway -- no kind of pipe drain. The dam is about 50 feet long, and the pond would be about 16 feet deep when it is full. The problem is that in the last few years, it has never been full. Seems to go to ground-water depth and remain there, no matter how much water.

3 years ago I became very busy at work, which took me off my mountain property for most summers. The pond became neglected, to say the least. Lush vegetation grew up around the edges until the pond was all but invisible.

This summer, I cleared all the vegegation. Now it looks like a pond again. But I don't know where to start in terms of making sure it is full like it used to be.

There is about 2 acres that drains into the pond, and the area upstream of the pond is "boggy."

I would like to send some photos but I do not know how to do it.

The following photo is the pond after years of neglect. The dam is on the right side of the photo, and the "bog" is on the left:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87508738@N05/8013240919/in/photostream/

The following photo is another view of the neglect. In this photo, the dam is on the left:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87508738@N05/8013243572/in/photostream/

The following is the pond after cleanup. The dam is on the left, out of view:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87508738@N05/8013239817/in/photostream/

A view of the dam, after cleanup. Notice how low the water level is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87508738@N05/8013239587/in/photostream/

Finally, a farther-away view of the pond after cleanup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87508738@N05/8013238697/in/photostream/

We have reecntly had 4 inches of rain, and the pond level didn't budge one inch. As I said, it appears to be a groundwater pond, and I am really looking for some guidance about what to do to get the levels back up again.

Thanks.

[img:center]http://www.flickr.com/photos/87508738@N05/8013240919/in/photostream/[/img]

Note that you can test if your image paths are correct by hitting the "Preview Reply" button. Your paths are lacking the actual image.

Your previous post here is almost correct, but it doesn't work without a valid image file extension.

It seems like you have a good amount of water available, but a very small pond.

Is there any chance that you could dig a bigger pond and use that pond to feed water into it?

Let me try this image thing again:

Neglected Pond:



Cleaned-up Pond:



If I have plenty of water coming into the pond, I don't know where it's going. The level of the pond NEVER varies. It's supposed to be up at the bank (it used to be up there).

Even when it rains 3+ inches, the water level never rises. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen. I don't know what's happening.

The downstream site of the dam (right side of the photos) is very overgrown with vegetation so I have a hard time seeing it. But there is a stream downstream of the dam that we alway thought was spring fed. Maybe it's "leak fed?"

Any ideas?

I'm guessing the stream is leak fed. If the water was up high before & stayed there and now it doesn't, to me that means a leak somewhere.