Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Figuring my pond out

I have gotten alot of advice on my pond on this forum. Today I dug several holes in my pond side and pond bottom. I have at least 18" of clay. I was very happy to discover that. I don't think my pond is leaking now and I don't think I will spend any money on bentonite. So that basically means my water was lost to evaporation and that cannot be fixed If someone knows how to solve that problem please tell me !!! I do know that I could plant some cedars around it to block some of the good Kansas wind, but would they drink more water than would evaporate due to wind??

I am going to contact my local NRCS office to get some ideas. Yesterday I buried some pipe from 2 of my downspouts and took them to the pond. So I will have rain water from my house and water from my water source heat pump going into the pond. I know people say pumping is not worth it, but how do you fight the evaporation factor? I see ponds all around here that keep their depth. Maybe I need to ask them if they are pumping.

Thanks for all the advice and I will let you know what more I find out.

Mike , in the California summer most ponds and swimming pools drop a good 4 inches a week.I have a fill line to my pool and a ground water well to our pond ,which is on 20 acres about 15 min. from our house. In the summer I go there 2 to 3 times a week to fill the generator with gas at $14 per pop. .Is it worth it? Every penny!Unless you are blessed with a year around creek or spring and want a full pond ,evap. is just one more thing we have to deal with. But in my opinion, its worth it. I saw the pics of the pond when full and it's awsome. Kevin

Hi Mike, sorry you're having problems with your pond. I'm no expert but it looks to me like the problem with your pond is depth. Think I remember you saying it's 5 1/2' when full. From the pictures I would guess it to be more shallow than that.

Here in Tennessee you can get away with 5-6' depth. Our rainfall is steady/evenly spaced out over the year, and equal to or maybe even exceeds the evaporation rate. In Kansas this is not the case ... evaporation rate significantly exceeds rainfall, and the rains are not evenly spaced throughout the year. Ponds in Kansas have to be deeper or fed by a water source.

To fix the pond you need to either a) Find a way to get more water running into it or b) Make the pond deeper. Runoff from the house isn't going to make much of a change in the water level, there doesn't seem to be a Spring there and a well would be expensive.

If it were my pond I would dig it deeper. You could start by having a backhoe over for 1 hour or so, to dig a trench from the center of the pond to let the water drain out. A month later you could get a dozer in there to clean the silt out and dig it out a little deeper. I bet the whole job could be done for $2,000 or less.