Pardon my ignorance here, as I'm learning....if the bottom were lined with clay as is recommended to many with leaking ponds, would this solve the issue and let you pump water to maintain a full pond?
Yes it would. Problem is that there is no clay on the property unless I want to remove 18' of sand first..... I wouldn't have to just fill the bottom with clay, I would have to fill the sides up and above the projected high water mark.
I looked into trucking in enough clay to line it when I was planning the renovation, but the cost was very prohibitive. It would have more than doubled the renovation costs.
fish 'n chips: Maybe not 65" of rain, but a LOT. The surrounding ground needs to get saturated first, then a neighbors 4' deep 1/4 ac pond has to fill, then the overflow goes to my pond. I only have a couple of acres of watershed to fill this pond. There is more watershed that will eventually flow into the pond, but it comes thru my neighbors property first. In a typical wet Spring, it would be full and the forest would have about 12" of water in it. We had little snowfall last winter, and minimal rain.
