Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Leaky Pond

Last August I reworked the dam on an existing pond built by my grandfather in the mid 1900's. The pond is approx 1 acre in size and had been empty for approximatly 10 years. The dam was in need of repair before it could be refilled and much of the pond had grown up with brush. We cleared all of the brush possible to clear except for areas where it was two wet for the dozer. in some areas i left small trees, stumps and brush. We dug the dam down to the core at the damaged area, rebuilt it, installed new drainage pipes and a new spill way. the rains came about january and filled the pond and everything seemed to be working perfectly. the pond was stocked in march and the fish appeard to doing very well. About june the rains stopped and my streamed slowed from a good flow to small trickle. my pond began to lose water at the rate of appox 1" per day. it has fallen from its max depth at the deep end of approx 10' to a depth of approx 2-3 feet. It appeard to be leaking around the dam though the side of a hill that has a lot of shell in it but has stopped leaking at its current depth. where do i start? should i drain the pond completely and start over? is there a way to economically seal the hill on the side of the pond? should i remove all the trees from the pond?

Look into bentonite. Also, you could consider a pond liner.

In my 1/3 of an acre excavated pond I will lose about an inch a day during the hot dry days of summer as it has been this year. I now pump about 3500 gallons in from a well and able to maintain a fairly constant level. Most people I talked to when I forst noticed this seemed to lose about the same amount in smaller ponds. I think water loss is alot more noticible. Bob