Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site To dam or not to dam??? Nightmare location?

I will post some photos here soon, but here is what I have.

Bottom area near a stream we dug down 9ft to make a pond and take out clay to raise the grade elsewhere for an outbuilding pad. We dug down about 4-5 feet and it started to get wet to the point where the tractor had a problem pulling the scraper (being used to dig the pond with). First they thought it was "spring", so the idea was to dig a deep hole in an attempt to pump the water out. That failed and we ended up using a trachoe to dig the pond out.

I pumped the pond out last summer in hopes of finishing the work and then build up a dam 8ft higher than the existing spillway. I noticed at that point that the lower 3-4 feet was perpetually wet and would never seem to dry out all the way around the pond. The bottom of the pond was a messy muck where I sunk down to my knees when I entered it. I would have to pump the bottom every couple of days to keep it the water down because it would slowly start to fill again.

So my question...

If I dam up the outlet 8ft more to better match the surrounding area, what is the chance of this being successful?

Would filling the bottom 3-4 feet with clay and packing it have any better chance of success?

Would a liner make more sense?

Forgot to mention that it seems to hold at or near the current depth 9ft and the pond is about 1 acre in size.

Hard to tell but the liner seems to be the safest bet. However, it might be best to try the packing with clay idea and see what happens. If the clay will seal it, I wouldn't mess with the liner.

Here are a couple of stiched pano pictures of the location. Basically I want to dam it up to met the upper hillside next to the yard.

Here are the photos that were used to create the stiched versions above.

I will get some more photos of what I think is the water table over the next couple of days. I need to keep it pumped out and allow it to dry in this 90-100 degree heat we are getting now. In a couple of days I should be able to see the it.

Pond construction pics coming... 45 mil liner installed.

I have a unopened roll of 45 mil liner 200X50 (10,000 sq ft) for sale. I bought it BELOW wholesale and the price has increased since then. If anyone is interesed it is $4,200. Which would basically be $.40 a sq ft + $200 in taxes for that roll.

200 ton of linestone rock delivered to be put on the shelf to stop any muskrats from digging holes for their homes. Stagged part of it around the pond and have been manually installing by hand.

Phase 1 includes cutting and laying out fabric on the liner where the rocks will be located and then "stacking" the front of the 3 ft down shelf like a wall about 1 1/2 ft (leaning the weight towards the bank). Then I use smaller rocks to cover the bottom and about 1/3 of the way on the up the self to protect the fabric and liner for phase 2.

Phase 2 includes using a skidsteer to carefully dump (get the bucket as low as possible and control the output from the bucket) the chips, gravel, smaller rocks, dust, etc... to fill the void between the inital shelf wall and the final 45 degree grade to the pond bank (minus about 3 inches of height). Then I collect medium sized rocks and place them on top of the fill to hold down the fill and give it a more finished look.

Overall it takes me about 4-5 hrs to finish a 12ft wide section completely. So with the length being around 700ft approx., it will take me around 291 hrs to complete the rock shelf. Ouch!

Let's see 2 hrs every afternoon + 8 hrs is about 18 hrs a week. Which means it will will take me about 4 months to complete the project. *sigh*

UV light is not good to have on the liner and will cause it to become brittle and crack, so I will need to stop the rock work and get the fabric down as a priority soon to keep the sun off the liner itself for longevity purposes.

Right now it's no too much of a problem because of the low UV index and the short fall days. I think every 3rd afternoon I will take a break from moving rocks and put down fabric instead. That will allow me to rest up a little before working the rock again.

This would be alot easier if there wasn't a liner involved, but I can't take the chance of having some retard that may put a hole in it behind the rock shelf and not tell me. It would be impossible to find out where the leak was coming from afterwards.

I need to get the pictures posted in case someone wants to see the progress.

I'm figuring it will take around 400 tons of limestone rock to complete the project.