Our equipment of choice has been a Cat 235B excavator, Cat 35-ton articulated off road dump, and John Deere 850 dozer. We need the excavator because it is a gravel pit type pond. We will need to lease a long reach excavator to get the deeper portions of the pond. You could substitute a scraper for the excavator and dump depending on your project. I would think that many impoundments can be completed mostly with a dozer. Our needs require moving sand long distances and we can't use a scraper due to the high water table.