Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? You Won't Believe My Lake Update

Hi again! Some of you will remember my posts from the late summer and fall fo 2010 when I was trying to fix a leaky lake. I posted a lot of pictures on Flickr and I think we al believed that was a great chance I had solved the problem.

But the work didn't help anything. I filled the lake back up with the well, and it immediately started dropping an inch a day. Over the course of 2011 it dropped the usual 8 feet.

Last summer I hired a friend with a backhoe to dig into the levee. He hit sand and stayed in sand.

I got the contractor's crew back out there last week. The lake is at the low pool stage and safe to work on. We started digging in the levee and hit red sand immediately. We kept digging sand. We dug red sand for two days. His own crew was speechless. The best we can tell is that they've dug out around 10,000 yards of red sand and still have a little more to get. there are mountains of red sand, so tall we had to push them back down the back side of the levee so we would have room to dump MORE red sand.

I've never seen anything like this. No one has. They built my lake out of sand, but topped it with enough good clay that it appears to be built out of clay. I truly do not think they did this to deceive me because I watched a lot of the work when we did this back in the 1990s.

I haven't said a word to the construction owner, who has been a friend for 15 years. All communication has been through his crew and him. I'm assuming he is going to be there in the morning to see this mess for himself and offer to fix it for free. If not, we will have our next big problem.

I'll post some pictures and give the link here as soon as I do.

"Bill Lake"

Bill,

We look forward to hearing from you.

Wow. Sounds like he had a bunch of sand to haul from a different job and you became the dump site.

Hope everything works out for you and he steps up.

Hi Mike,

The place was like a tourist site late last week with people coming out to see this mess.

What we think happened is that they pushed what they thought was clay dirt (I know...how can a bulldozer operator NOT know the difference between sand and clay)from one side (where a hill tapered into what would be the lake basin) across the dry lake bed. This was not a very long push, and I can only speculate that they got all the sand from there.

The contractor sent another bulldozer down Saturday morning, plus a sheep's foot roller. One of his operators said he is sending two dump trucks down Monday morning. We already have a huge track hoe and a big John Deere with a 17 yard dirt pan.

From what I can gather from the phone conversations they mention between the operators and the contractor, and from the notion that he is sending all this other equipment down in the morning, I can only assume he is taking this seriously and is going to fix it as his own cost.

They say they can re-build it in about three days. It's supposed to rain some this coming week, but if we have some fortunate breaks in the weather maybe they will finish it. I'll keep everyone here posted.

Wow, great news that he is stepping up quickly and without complaint.

Mistakes happen, its how you handle them that defines your credibility and this contractor seems to be doing it right!

I hope so Mike. He built this lake about 15 years ago and it's been nothing but trouble ever since. I haven't spoken to him since we made the sand discovery, but he's supposed to be here Monday morning and I'm curious to see what he has to say.

I would NOT assume he is doing this for free!!! I would make sure that's the first thing that gets talked about when he gets there!!! Or this could get real ugly fast!!

Good Luck

I'm with RC, 15 years after the fact leaves a lot of room for interpretation, irregardless of whether or not the lake has had problems from the beginning.

Discuss costs first.

Hey Spark you need need to post another post real quick!! Don't know if you noticed but you have 666 posts!!! Post something man anything!!!!

Whew, that was close! Thanks RC! I don't need any bad ju-ju!

Here are some pictures. The set is called "Why a Levee Leaks."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58612497@N04/

Try this link.


Why a Levee Leaks

Link to specific set of levee pictures.

Yeah man thats unreal!! Amazing you can have a pond there at all!

Here's a link to some pictures of the lake before the last time I "fixed" it.

"New" lake

Here is the link to the when I "fixed" it in October of 2010.
We worked on most everything BUT the levee. I asked over and over..."is there anything possible we might have missed?" Obviously we missed the whole dang problem.
October 2012 work

So, anything good come out of his visit?

We had drizzle and sleet off and on today but his guys came to work and hauled clay back into the levee and packed it. They run those big machines that have cabs and I assume good heaters. No one complains and they say that they work unless there is a driving storm or lightening.

But the main contractor...he didn't drive over. He is headquartered about 40 miles away.

As long as the project is coming along and we're packing in good clay then I want them to roll hard till they finish. We only got about a half a day of hauling clay today, and we got more rain tonight. If the weather would clear off I think we can finish in less than two days and then spend some time dressing it up a little. I've very curious to see how fast the well and pump fill the lake back up once we have it sealed off properly.

Looks like the rain has quit for the night, and the forecast confirms that. If so, then I hope it will be suitable in the morning to start moving clay-dirt again. If we get a full day hauling tomorrow I expect to see the levee taking shape and ready to turn the well back on in another day or two.

By the way....this time I'm planning to pump the lake back up over the water line it normally falls to, and raise it up a couple of feet above that and then turn off the well and check the water elevation over a 24 hour period to see what it does. Every year I've filled it all the way up, I have high expectations, and then it starts dropping about an inch or more a day as soon as I cut the well off. If it does that again I'm going to leave the well off and let the water level drop as low as it wants to and then we're going to review the situation again. I'm not filling it up full again to test how well it is sealed off.

Are they carryng the clay out past the end of the levee and tying it into good clay? I'd hate for them to put in a core trench, and then have the pond leak between the clay lining the basin of the pond and the core trench.

Think of a bowl with one side cut away. The bowl is your pond, the cut away side is the levee side. If you place the bowl against a board, then fill it, the water will leak out between the board and the bowl.

You get the idea......

IIRC, they lined the pond with clay and packed it when it was built, right?

The story has more. I built this lake in the early 1990s. It was built the right way and everything was fine, no leaks. After a few years I decided to raise the levee to push the water as far back into two hollows as I could. The following construction is when the trouble started.

They knocked the top off the original levee a few feet so they could blend and mold it back with the new dirt. The problem was, as we are learning, is that they used sand. So instead of the water level remaining (at lesat) as high as the original lake, it only remains as high as the original levee AFTER they reduced it.

But yes, we put in a new core ditch in front of the old core ditch, and will be plating over the whole thing, the entire length of the levee, with 2-4 feet of good clay. We didn't find any sand when digging the new core ditch. I also bought some 10 mil black plastic sheeting, 100 x 20, that I may put on the front of that, all the way into the water where it stands now.

It rained last night so no one worked today. Will keep you posted.

Any update.... I'm dying to know if he is going to fix the problem at his expense.

Nothing yet. We had rain off and on last week and were only able to really work out their Friday, but surprisingly the contractor sent his crew back and they worked all day Saturday. I think we have three more full days to fix it the right way, counting dressing it up.

I have asked the crew if the contractor has said anything else about it and they keep telling that he hasn't. He returned a call the other day and we spoke briefly and he is supposed to be here in the morning. I'm printing out pictures right now for him to take back with him, and I just printed out an itemized list of my expenses over 15 years of dealing with this mess.

I'll be sure to give an update when I find out something. We have a forecast of good weather the next few days and I hope to get this thing tended to the right way, once and for all. No one in their right mind would visit the site and think this could possibly be the landowners fault. We'll see if the contractor wants to do the right thing and how much more involved this will get.

I just read this entire thread. Man I sure hope that everything works out, and keep us posted.

I don't have a big report, but I did want to update the thread.

We hauled clay dirt for several days, and from all sources it appears to be setting up very solidly. Packing very well and tight.

I have the well turned on now and the average rise of water has been about two inches a day, which is about right. The higher it gets the slower it gets because it has more shoreline to fill and area to cover. It's starting to do that now. The water has risen about two feet so far. We have several days of rainin the forecase and I'm going to let it rise some more to back up over the boat ramp. I'm hoping to get another 12-18 inch rise depending on the rain. Rain soaking the shoreline will help the well water fill the lake rather than soak in to the first few inches of the shore.

I plan to turn the well off after the rain is over and things stabilize for a couple of days, and watch it 2-3 days and see if it seeps down any. So far things look good. We've had some warm days and I've fed the fish and they are coming up and weating very good, which indicates they made it fine during the low water while we worked.

I haven't talked to the contractor and I haven't seen a bill. I'm still feeling my way through that part. I don't plan on paying until the lake is full again and we have proof that the problem is solved. I paid for this lake 15+ years ago, and have paid to have it fixed twice since then. I think I'm due for some good fortune that the lake holds water like a tub, and that we have a major compensation on any possible bill sent my way.

Will keep you posted.

Bill