Quick observations...
1. VERY important you get in a boat, get a line with weight on it and start measuring actual depths so you don't have any misconceptions. Your plan and cost will change greatly if the middle of the pond is really 5' deep with 4' of muck rather than what you hope will be 8' of water and very little muck. If you need to remove at least 2' of muck then you will want to consider pumping pond dry, letting dry out and manually remove muck. You didn't mention if it is a groundwater pond or a pond with dam to catch runoff. Plan for a dam pond is different.

You can remove 2' or more of muck using chemicals but you need about 5 years of patience to get it done. Most people want to pump dry, use long arm excavator and possibly bulldozer in pond basin to re-excavate. You need a place to spread out the muck for a season or two as well. Too pricey to truck it away due to the fact that it won't stay in a normal dump truck bed.

2. Once you know depth then get a long stick of PVC (perhaps two put together) and start probing the muck till you hit a solid bottom. Check several areas to see how much muck you have. Post what you find here.

3. It will be tough to have a 'clean' swimming pond with all the nutrients and muck in there. An old, 'fertile' pond is hard to change back to a new, 'clean' swimming pond without lots of muck removal, filtration, chemicals and aeration. Leaches might be better managed by putting in fish that will clean up the leaches and also removing some of their hiding spots by cleaning up the muck.

4. research both horizontal and bottom mounted vertical aeration on this forum. Both have great advantages depending on your goals, availability of power at the pond etc.

5. I'm no expert on chemicals for cattails. I used mechanical removal, then go back multiple times to continue to pull out the regrowth from roots. Some have cut down and applied chemicals to the remaining stalks to try to kill the roots.

Last edited by canyoncreek; 10/29/20 01:21 PM.