Jpsdad,
Thanks for your reply!
There is no dam. This is a natural pool from a spring. The main spring flows south to north from the neighbors property, under the road, and onto my land.
The dimensions are roughly 200' square with a nice tapered outflow stream that goes into a large pipe, flows under my land a bit, pops out at a place where a large waterwheel used to be (Our house used to be an old Mill). goes back under ground, under a small side road and pops out in a stream onto a neighbors property.
The gradient is pretty flat. The inlet and outlet are roughly the same depth. Once the water hits the area where the old waterwheel was located it drops 5 foot and proceeds out to the stream.
I believe the bottom is clay. Closer to the outlet where the pond tapers down, there is a clay bed, no muck in the 20ft outlet stream.
There is a very strong spring upstream on the neighbors property. She has a pond, roughly same depth as mine, which flows under the road and into my pond. I suspect the entire area (thousands of acres) is atop a vast underwater system. Many neighbors have spring fed ponds. The street was actually named for the many springs in the area.
The flow mainly stays the same during heavy rain. The water does not raise significantly. The water will raise significantly, within hours, if a grate is placed over our outflow and leaves/debris inhibit the water flow.
The banks are surrounded by trees on three sides. The side not covered by trees is the side closest to our house and outflow. The pond gets significant leaf debris and yes this is the source of the muck. Standing in the outlet stream where there is a clay bed I am fine. But when walking out just a 6 or 7 feet from the bank I will go up to my waste in muck easily.
I guess I really don't know how to drain a section to excavate when I've got over 100 gallons per minute flowing into the the pond.
Again thanks for your time and expertise!
JM
