Oh cool thanks for following up, I remember reading this post. I would have done the same thing with hand digging. I would have worried the excavating equipment would do a lot of damage getting into and out of the basin, or just needing to wait too long for conditions to get right.

It is always amazing the geology under our feet. Under my house from what I have researched is something like this:
~150ft of glacial mix. ~50ft of oil shale with natural gas, ~100ft thick mix of shale transition to limestone with natural gas, ~25ft to ~100ft thick layer of rock salt, limestone on down to who knows what.

That layer of rock salt is mined in Geneseo nearby, where it is thicker. There is an underground city with massive equipment down there. There are few collapses around the area where the pillars were not big enough to support the land above. I own my mineral rights, so that should not happen here. If it did, we would have to worry about those collapses.

Water drillers in the area always worry about hitting the salt. It is not a flat layer, and when they hit it, they have to back-fill the well with concrete and try again or the salt will contaminate the ground water.

The slower leak you may have, should hopefully be remedied by the Soilfloc. It has so far worked wonders on my seepage issues.

Last edited by liquidsquid; 06/23/20 07:48 AM.