Yes, 15 feet should be fine for a driving path around the pond.
If you are worried about the silt, I would grade a reverse slope from the edge of the pond to the start of the berm. (The pond edge is higher.)
You could also have a slight reverse slope on the top of the berm, so a heavy rainfall would flow away from the pond and most of the erosion would be on the backside of the berm.
Ok thanks. I'll talk to my contractor about the reverse slope.
I have some similar ponds planned for my farm. I am getting some more soil samples from the NRCS drilling rig to finalize my plans.
I would highly recommend that you get some soil samples BEFORE moving in the heavy equipment. Ideally, you want to get a few feet deeper than your projected 15 foot max. depth.
I would also plan the project for the driest time of the year to avoid groundwater as much as possible.
I will definitely dig some test holes with a smaller unit before we get the heavy eq. here. There is a potential for sand veins so hoping we'll be ok.
Hoping to get digging as soon as the frost goes out an would be great if we don't get a ton of rain.
Reading further this definitely will be an excavated pond so I'll have to rely mostly on a spring, spring runoff or rain to fill it up. There really isn't any watershed to go into it.
