Leaking pond

indianabuckman · Aug 27, 2015

I dug this pond out about 9 years ago, about 1 acre pond 13 feet deep. It has held water all these years but this summer it's been going down a lot, about 30 feet from the bank. Two question: should I just let it go and see if it fills back up in the spring or should I try to fix it. and the big question is what is the best way to fix it or what are some of the ways to fix it. I heard of putting hogs or cattle in it and fencing it off but I would half to drain it to do that and i'm not sure I'm ready to do that yet. I heard of Bentonite, can you put it in the water to stop the leak.
thanks.

showcrop · Aug 27, 2015

Do you think maybe your over all water table is down? All the ponds, rivers, lakes that I know of follow the water table.

john in la · Aug 27, 2015

Do you know where the leak is?
How much clay does your soil contain?
How big is your watershed?
Has this been a dry year for rainfall?
Is this a dam pond and do you have any trees growing on the dam?

A normal pond need 10 to 15 acres of watershed per acre of pond just to keep up with evaporation in most normal rain areas. We can do with a lot less where I live but we get over 60 inches of rain per year.
For a pond to seal you should have a minimum of 20 percent clay in your soil.
Bentonite will seal a leak over time but it would get expensive to cover the whole acre if you do not know where the leak is.
Draining it and putting cows on it will compact the soil but you still need some clay.

You could contact your local state college ag center. My state will do a test of our soil and tell us if it is pond building soil. They test for the clay content.
But I am willing to bet if it has been holding water for 9 years you either have a low rain year or you have a dam pond and the dam has started to leak.

randallk · Aug 27, 2015

You either have had low rainfall or you have developed a leak....due to muskrats or something similar. I have successfully used old sheet rock to seal ponds. Anybody doing remodeling should have this to give away. Just float the sheets out into the water and let them sink. 'Something about it seals ponds.

indianabuckman · Aug 27, 2015

watershed is about 12 acres and it is a dam pond. was a wet spring and early summer but it's been dry lately here in southern Indiana.

Steve A W · Aug 27, 2015

Here is a page from Indiana DNR;
pond leak

Bryan inIowa · Aug 27, 2015

My uncle had a dam built years ago . Had few leaks soaking thru it . We floated raft out to base of dam and dumped Bentonite out of bags , not sure how many , hundred 50lb bags maybe? sealed it up tight
.

jeffcat · Aug 27, 2015

MAN I hate Muskrats. Raised absolute h&&&& in the pond one year when it was low. They dug new tunnels way below the low water level and finaly had big back hoe come in to fix every thing. Also redid the over flow pipe to make it like 18 inches and steel so the bast**8 couldn't dig up through the pipes. I like that dry wall trick. Sounds interesting. Bentonite is what they use in oil wells and heavy construction where water can seep into the work. Professional mud is what a friend of mine called it.

paul · Aug 27, 2015

If you are lucky it will go dry.

Otherwise, the EPA will own that land in a week or so.

http://www2.epa.gov/cleanwaterrule/definition-waters-united-states-under-clean-water-act

Paul

MT RON · Aug 27, 2015

Maybe forming a sink hole be careful.Ron

sms · Aug 28, 2015

We built a pond on my grandfathers farm with two culvert pipes in the base of the dam, we put a board lined with rubber inner tube over the pipes to seal them. Many years later it was leaking. Muskrats had chewed a hole through that board. Always wondered what happened when he made the hole, water was about 8 feet deep.

tractorhead · Aug 28, 2015

Try pondboss.com

JML755 · Aug 28, 2015

(quoted from post at 23:03:38 08/27/15) If you are lucky it will go dry.

Otherwise, the EPA will own that land in a week or so.

http://www2.epa.gov/cleanwaterrule/definition-waters-united-states-under-clean-water-act

Paul

Now I'm not "against clean water" or "for pollution" but the EPA and state DEQs have gotten out of hand when it comes to trampling upon our rights as property owners. I've got some land that has cat-tails growing in a small, low area. I brush hog that area like any other part of the field but figure that if a DEQ chopper ever flew over while I was doing it, I'd probably have swarms of cop cars screaming down on me and be on the ground in handcuffs.

DGinVT · Aug 28, 2015

Bentonite will work, but you should have an idea as to where the water is coming out. If it were mine, I would let the water go almost all the way down and look for swirls in the shallow water indicating the leak. If these are found you could use bentonite in those areas. Not knowing your area I would also want to watch for sink holes. The State had one here on I 89 sometime back in July and they can swallow up many things including people and equipment.

indianabuckman · Aug 28, 2015

thats what I'm afraid of. This county is full of sink holes.

Leaking pond

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