It’s true, there are always 2 sides to every story! We had an existing small pond that we wanted landscaped and we were looking for someone knowledgeable who could also teach us how to maintain the pond. Last year we hired a pond contractor who convinced us to expand the pond. At the time, we didn’t know anything about pond construction and dams- we assumed the pond person knew what he was doing. Beyond that we wanted to complete the project with natural plantings and maybe eventually some fish. That was supposed to be this year until the pond sprung the leak. When one application of bentonite didn’t work our guy didn’t seem to have any sense of urgency to try something else. We had confidence in him up until the point he suggested pumping the water coming out the side of the dam back up into the pond even though the pond was still losing water. After that, he became scarce (we had paid him for any work he had done). Not sure why pond professional didn’t suggest soil floc or talk about other options. I was hoping by posting in the forum I might learn something from people who have dealt with pond leaks.