Anybody had a pond filled?

[backhoeboogie]

Drilling mud tanks have been dealt with for years. I own a few drill sites. Red clay pits in East Texas too. Muck pits. Caliche pits here in north Texas. There are red clay mud streams in East Texas that have never been ponds. You can lose dozers pushing trees.

Gravel is cheap here. Septic rock is really cheap. I can get it free at times and my only cost is fuel to drag the dump trailer to the site. Wish I could get it free in East Texas. Two or three French drain systems could fix old drilling mud pits on my uncle's place.

 

[inyati13]

Drilling mud tanks have been dealt with for years. I own a few drill sites. Red clay pits in East Texas too. Muck pits. Caliche pits here in north Texas. There are red clay mud streams in East Texas that have never been ponds. You can lose dozers pushing trees.

Gravel is cheap here. Septic rock is really cheap. I can get it free at times and my only cost is fuel to drag the dump trailer to the site. Wish I could get it free in East Texas. Two or three French drain systems could fix old drilling mud pits on my uncle's place.

backhoe, I have seen a hundred of these old ponds backfilled in my lifetime. One heavy equipment operator that I was raised with uses a large tracked loader. He slots the dam and forces the standing water out by displacing it with material from the dam. Then he goes in and picks up the "clay cake" and dumps it where it will dry. There is some drainage because you pick up some residual standing water. He backfills the pond with dry material. When the "mud cake" drys, he comes back and uses the "mud cake" as a top dressing. It makes a good cover for vegetation.

I have never seen anyone around here put in a French drain or any kinda pipe. I cannot speak to what they do in other regions of the country.

People have problems here when they try to backfill over the "mud cake". It will eventually dry but it can cause some traffic problems until it does.

 

[greybeard]

Drilling mud tanks have been dealt with for years. I own a few drill sites. Red clay pits in East Texas too. Muck pits. Caliche pits here in north Texas. There are red clay mud streams in East Texas that have never been ponds. You can lose dozers pushing trees.

Gravel is cheap here. Septic rock is really cheap. I can get it free at times and my only cost is fuel to drag the dump trailer to the site. Wish I could get it free in East Texas. Two or three French drain systems could fix old drilling mud pits on my uncle's place.

I have a couple of those 'mud streams' on my place, but they aren't red clay, they're a whitish or pale gray looking muck. Solid looking on top, always evidenced by palmetto growth, it's actually an unconsolidated aluvial clay and fine silt mix laid down over the eons by flood waters leaving a very thin layer when the the water recedes--it's all fines--very very fine. We just call that area Palmetto Flat. Our red clay and bluish clays are further down, are impermeable and that layer is what causes the upper area to remain treacherous all year except in extreme drought periods.
A neighbor allowed a sheep to get out once, it wandered onto my place sick and died 2 days later. I (always worried about anthrax with any sheep death didn't want it laying around, so I took the Case 480 over to what I thought was solid ground and dug a deep hole, went back, scooped up the dead stinking pasture maggot, and dumped it in the hole. Turned around set the stabilizers back down and proceeded to fill the hole. When I got ready to raise the stabilizers, found they had sunk down to the cylinder barrel, and as soon as I raised them, the rear wheels sunk too. Took two tractors and a long cable tied to a pine tree and other end on my front bucket to get me out a few feet at a time. Pushing with the backhoe bucket was useless--nothing down there solid enough to push against. I stayed with the undercariage dragging in the muck for about 50'--and I had just drove over the same area. Once you break thru, you're done. My property is very flat, so I don't think a french drain would help--no where of lower elevation to drain to.

 

[backhoeboogie]

sort of been there myself. Over in Marshall, TX

open end of a chain hook on the side of the dozer track

115 foot of chain to reach a pine tree pray the hook holds.

pray the chain doesn't break.

edge forward

dozer spins sideways but up a little

slack the chain and bite again.

Not nearly as easy as chaining up the back tractor tire but I got out. Left a mud bog behind.

 

[herofan]

LATEST:

There is a spot still there about 3 x 15 feet that is now spongy. I walked on it with no problem, so I drove the tractor over it. It sank in places about six inches, but it's no longer muddy, so no danger of getting hung. When I drive over it it's wavy beneath the tractor. Cows can still go to their knees in a place or two, but it doesn't seem to present a problem for them.

Does it sound like this will eventually dry out? Will rain cause this area to get like quicksand again?

 

[backhoeboogie]

Look at the bright side, you're not dealing with an old cess pool.

I would be scared of the thing henceforth without some sort of leqaching capability.

 

[inyati13]

That mud cake lasts a long time if covered before it can dry out. One suggestion that would be easy to do: Make sure surface flow is diverted from running onto the backfilled area. Especially if the backfill is not well drained and the water has time to percolate.