Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What a difference 6" of rain in 2 weeks makes!

From a low of 7" in depth on the marker to 60" today. Now if I could only keep it this full!!

Beautiful pond (when full!)

I feel your elation of full pool and share your knowledge that in July/Aug it's gonna be back down. What bugs me the most is the carrying capacity that is lost. On the upside however, 4 yrs ago I had to walk down to the stream to even see minnows, now i have a place to float around on when it gets hot and some pretty healthy YP and Hsb (thanks to all the help from Bill Cody and this site) for such a small body of water. Bob-O

Looks great esshup!

I have to agree with the carrying capacity part! Last year was the lowest that it got since the renovation. We'll see about this year. When it starts dropping I might turn on the well and see if I can stay ahead of it.

I like your pond Scott. It looks great when full, but you seem to manage the fluctuations well.

I have heard that GW ponds will eventually seal up over time, but I do not know if it is actually true.

A couple days ago we got 2" of rain in less than 24 hrs. Friday morning I talked to some people that live on the Muskegon River. Officials called everyone along the river because they had to full flow the dam, and everyone should evacuate. I went through this morning and have never seen the flooding so bad. It is quite unusual for that to happen around here.

My bummer out of this is that my GW test holes are dry. My Mom and Dad's basement is dry. Usually there would be at least two sump pumps going all spring with a third for extra load. Not one was ever needed.

You have to go back to 1906 to beat the amount of rain for the month of April that we had this year.

A couple years ago, you could almost poke a stick in the ground and hit water.

Something happened to our water table, and I can only speculate that the GW found a new path of least resistance to it's destination, which is the Muskegon River.

Something is broke for GW ponds, but good for those with full basements.

I am about a half mile north of the Muskegon River in Bridgeton Township, but guessing, maybe, about 100 feet or so higher in elevation. Odd thing is, is that between me and the river, at about the same elevation as me, is a classified wetland area, same as behind me.

Left is south (if you are facing west), so you have River - wetland - me - wetland. Both wetlands and me are within, maybe, 3 to 6 feet in elevation. Me being higher. The river is quite a ways down. The wet area out back is not wet!

Where did the water go? It has to have taken a new path is all I can think of.

Thanks JKB. I think that even with the rain that we had recently, the ground water level hasn't had a large enough supply this winter, and has never recovered from the drought last Fall. If it wasn't for this rain in the past few weeks, I'd still have a pond that was about 4' low. I do get surface water flowing into the pond from high rain events. The area that the pond was dug in typically had water running thru it during wet periods in the Spring, and the woods to the South typically flood in the Spring.

You might be seeing the same low ground water levels. Given more rain, and time, the water should seep down and replenish some of the ground water. While the hard fast rainstorms filled the pond, it's the groundwater that keeps it full.

Typically my pump house floods in the wet Springs, up to 24" deep. This year, even with the rain, it has stayed dry. That is what is leading me to believe that the ground water levels haven't come up, and what i'm seeing is just surface water.

I do believe that groundwater ponds will seal up over time, but with this sandy soil I don't think they completely seal like a clay lined pond will.

There are obviously big differences in ground water ponds depending on where they are located. Our pond was dug into the ground water table approximately 35 feet below the original topsoil layer. The first 20 feet of aggregate was removed just to get to the ground water. Then the next 10-15 feet of aggregate was removed. Below that is a thick layer of clay. The makeup of areas surrounding us for several miles in all directions is similar.

I wonder what core samples in your areas would show. Perhaps you know?

Dwight, when talking to the NRCS agent, he said that typical core samples in the county are pure sand, going down 50-100 feet. When I told him that the soil at my place was sand to 10.5', gravel for 6", clay/gravel for 1', sand for the next 6', another layer of 6" gravel then a grey clay/gravel mix, he said that it was unusual for this county. We dug my pond down to 22' depth, having to pump water out every day once we got down past the first gravel/clay layer at 11'. Unfortunately we didn't have enough clay to line the pond.

Alright! Glad to see you finally got the water you needed. Guess that means I can put the pipeline project from my overflows to your pond on hold.......

Heck no! By the time you get it completed, the pond will start dropping again.

Wow, that looks awesome! Hope mine looks like that some day.