Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Scuba Diver Patching a Leaky Lake

I met a guy the other day who owns a 1 acre Lake in cincinnati ohio. He was telling me when his lake was completed he had numerous leaks. He tried several diferent ways to fix the problems, sprinkling etc, with no luck. He finally heard of a guy who was a professional scuba diver/trainer who patched leaks on the side. Apparently the diver came out to his place and patched his leaks by scuba diving in his lake and somehow patching his leaks from the inside.

Has anyone heard of this technique for fixing a leaky lake, if so how is he able to detect the leak from under water and patch the leak?

My reason for starting this thread is that I recently had a 3 acre lake construted about 2 years ago and it has not filled yet. Once last note, I am trying to track this fellow (scuba diver) down and find out if this is legit or not. I will keep you posted.

If anyone has or heard of this technique please let me know. Thanks, Lance in Cincinnati

Sounds like someone is pulling your leg or a pathological liar. Very doubtful.

Or "BOTH" Cecil,I agree, Have heard of liner repair while full but not a earthen pond !!

The only obvious way to spot a leak in a pond is to stir up clay and look for places where the clouded water can be visually seen to be drawn into leaks.

There's two ways to detect, to see where clouded water is drawn into the leak, and to look for tell tale signs when the clay cloud has settled for areas where the settled dust has been cleared by the the current to the leak.

Ramming clay into the leaks should plug it a while, using concrete or resins that can set under water might be vaguely effective ways to plug leaks in different circumstances like natural ponds, rock beds, liner ponds

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html

when my pond was first completed, i was concerned about a leak an area. the water was very clear at the time (i hadn't limed it or fertilized it yet). i put on a wet suit and some scuba gear, and got a bottle and put a bunch of red dye in it, dove around to the areas of concern and opened up the dye bottle around the areas of concern. then i scooted back and just observed any flow of the dye. i let the dye out as close to the soil of concern. didn't show any leaks by that method, pretty tough to tell, and i'm not really that patient. a couple of probs with doing this... the pond was new, and after reading the books from this website, and from interaction from this website, i realized the pond needs to "settle" and get "saturated" now the pond is holding like a bucket of water (taking into account the local evaporation rate). my pond is full, and my wetsuit is stained with red dye!!! but hypothetically, if you have a big enough leak, and you get some dye close to it, you may see a flow of the dye to that spot. good luck though. mark

Several years ago, a poster on this site said he found several dam leaks by identifying the temperature of the water on the outside of the dam and then scubaing on the inside of the dam to identify the depth of the leak. He also claimed to fix them. Don't know.