Originally Posted by FishMagnet
... I guess if I can partially seal the sand, I'll need to pump a lot less water

Yes. If you are going to pump ... the filtration will determine how much and how costly it will be. Any system requires maintenance but when you have to contribute energy to the equation then the costs can be prohibitive. If you could draft the river at an elevation above the pond surface... then it may be possible to gravity to the pond. That may require an easement(s) from a neighbor(s). Possibly you might have enough neighbors interested in forming an irrigation association or something like that.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers