Pond Leaking

[HOSS]

I have a 4 acre pond on the property that I just bought. According to the neighbor back when the pond was built about 20 years ago it held water fine and was even stocked with fish. A decision was made to build a spill way by installing a culvert at the top of the levee at one end. The spill way was put in and the ground re-packed with a backhoe but a leak sprung at the base of the levee below the spill way. No attempt was made to fix it they just let it drain down to the point where only 2 or 3 feet of water is left standing in the bottom. This shrunk the pond size down to about 3/4 acre and saplings and trees have grown up in the pond bed. Ducks love it but I want to try and fix it so that I will have the 4 acres of water back. Does anyone have any experience fixing pond leaks? Should the leak are be torn back out and repacked with a heavy dozer and the soil mixrd with a commercial packing agent? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[rgv]

Check out pond boss.com

 

[dun]

Any culvert or pipe should have an antileak collar. We bed the antileak collar in bentonite and back the existing material around it. works great. But you'll need to rip those small trees etc out. They'll send root past the clay/sealing blanket and when the die and rot out will provide a lovely channel for the water to run through

dun

 

[Herefordcross]

Yes I do have experience building, rebuilding and cleaning ponds.

Number ONE: Make sure that you do not need any local, county, state, or Army Corps of Engineers Permits.If I had pictures I could help you more. Soil conditions are important. However, my own watering hole was core drilled by the extension agent and said it wouldn't hold water, ten years later, here it is. Back to your problem though, we have installed spillways/culverts many times with a backhoe but, it really depends on the soil condition.From the sounds of it you may want to get a dozer or loader in there and clean those saplings up anyway but, if it held water before I wouldn't do anymore to the base of the pond (where it used to hold water) other than scratch and mix it up, if you know what I mean, and then track it in good (compact it) as far as your outlet culvert. If your current culvert isn't in the form of a 90 degree angle then you may consider that. I could fax you some pictures on it if you like.Compaction is important when building the breast of the pond/lake, if it's very deep you would be surprised at the forces exerted on it daily when it is full of water. I hope this helps pm if you have anymore specific questions.

 

[go west]

When working on a recent pond project I found this website. Thought it had some good information and photos showing the pond construction process.

http://www.texassodiumbentonite.com/sto ... action=228

As was already mentioned by others, the type of soil makes a big difference. As for compaction, that's a major part of success or failure. You might even need to bring in a sheepsfoot (padded drum) vibratory roller to get the level of compaction needed to tighten the soil up.

 

[Herefordcross]

I hope you are able to fix it, keep us posted. Thanks

 

[MikeJoel]

I hear little boys with a good thumb can take care of those type of things :lol: ;-)

Very interesting though. We hope to be putting in a couple of ponds soon (not that big though).

Mike