My ponds have held water very well during a record drought this year. Pack your dam with a sheep's foot roller in 6-8" lifts. I bought one to tow behind my dozer. My ponds all hold water like a tub. Building wildlife habitat is my passion, My bottom drains are PVC pipe, so I capped them when I was done. I also was careful to pack the drain pipe with clay under the core of the dam.
I was also planning to put in PVC bottom drains during construction. I was going to dig a sump in the clay near the "dam" and install the inlet screen and pipe in the sump. Then pile gravel on top to get back above the grade of the bottom of the pond. (To reduce my muck invasion into the sump.)
Or is this backwards, should I put large diameter bare-end PVC in the sump and run it full blast before forecasted rain? Would this allow me to pull out a small % of the bottom muck each year with minimal effort?
Did you install anti-seep collars on your drains? Have you used them to drain, or even pull down your ponds?
