We are on the process of trying dig out and compact a ~1 acre pond that has leaked significantly for years. It is located in eastern Nebraska and the soil is supposed to have sufficient clay. The pond also has a significant amount of bentonite that my grandpa put in there trying to get it sealed.

We dug all the muck out and are now compacting it with a double barrel sheepsfoot roller and a jd 5100E. Most of the pond is packing pretty well and is now getting to the point where the sheepsfoot barely even makes a mark. There are like 3-4 spots though that seem to just be mushing under the weight of the track tires and roller. You can see the soil squish out away from the load points rather than press down and compact. We tried digging a hole with an excavator and to get to what looked like good soil and mixed it into those softer areas but it still just seems to never firm up. My question is so you think this is a moisture problem (too wet) or should we dig those areas out with an excavator and put in different soil and compact again?

I will say too that when we were digging we ran into a lighter color material that seems more greasy/slimy and mushy. I don’t know if it is another sort of wet clay. It seems to make a ball fairly easy but doesn’t seem to compact like some of the other soil or the bentonite in the pond.

Additionally, if anyone has an contacts in the Omaha area that are good soil or pond building guys that I could contact about hiring as a consultant for a day to come take a look at our project that would be awesome. We have gotten this far we just don’t really have the knowledge about soils to get it across the finish line.

I highlighted the soft areas in red. The other areas seem to be compacting fairly well. I also had a post on another thread that explains another thing that seemed to happen in these same areas where the tire of the tractor would fall into a “hole” and feel like it was going to tip over. There is also some photos of the soil difference in that thread.

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=41561&Number=541560#Post541560

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