Leaking Pond

[JWA]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

 

[Robin Hood]

I’d be nervous. There’s 345,000 gallons of water in an acre foot. I remember a pond dam collapse back in the nineties in New Hampshire. I think the locals called it the Alton Halo. Show Crop would remember. Were the trees in the dam?

 

[wp6529]

SCUBA gear and a bottle of food coloring. Search around the suspect area and if you think you found something release a drop and watch for it to flow. If you don't SCUBA, search for a local dive club and I bet you'll find some folks willing to help.

 

[stevieb49829]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

I would suspect beavers or muskrats burrowing into the dam before I blamed a willow root. steve

 

[Janicholson]

How thick is the dam at the leak, and how far from the top? If the dam is built of soil from the creation of the pond, it might be so porous that draining it and lining the dam with a real clay layer might be the only solution. Be careful to assess what a real failure could mean for down hill neighbors, and your liability if it did fail. Jim

 

[Tom in TN]

I have a small pond, certainly less than one acre. A few years ago it started leaking down. I hired a guy to come in and scoop a small layer from the pond. The guy found ledge rock in the bottom of the pond that probably was where the leakage was getting out. He then installed a silo liner in it to try to keep the water in. It worked for a couple of years but then it started leaking down again. I haven't tried adding bentonite but I night try it. I'd like to get the little pond back into a working order.

 

[rustred]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

dont know what u call a pond. around here we call it a slew. where the water just sits in a low spot. and how deep is it? 300 lbs of bentonite is very little. , its only 3 bags. we mixed that by the pallet fulls on drilling rigs to get the viscosity of the drilling mud up. i dont know how you can mix bentonite in a pond of water. it would have to be mixed in the dry ground first. other wise its just going to float around like flour in water. if you dont have a good clay base to hold the water its a loosing battle.

 

[john in la]

300 lbs of bentonite is enough to do 60 sq feet. That’s a 6 by 10 area. You might get away with such a small amount if you drained the pond and knew exactly where the leak was.
But sprinkling that amount on the water surface where the wind can move it around you are just pissing in the wind.

 

[showcrop]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

Willows will go farther and faster for water than most trees. They are also very light weight and decay quickly leaving a void so they could very well help the water along. I assume that what you referred to as a "levy" is what everyone is calling a dam, and that it was put there so it could wash away. The lake behind the dam that failed in NH was 450 acres so no comparison to yours.

 

[Howard Yoder mc]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

If you pulled dirt from the pond they usually pack blue clay when they build it you may have dug the blue clay out which might be causing the leak

 

[plattman]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

When you say still have significant leak just how does it appear. As flowing water or as a moist seep. Does it appear near the toe(bottom) of the bank or farther up. Location and significance would indicate a fix. Just a seep is probably best left alone. Native soil type will have a lot to do with success. Some people dont have clays but they pile up dirt anyway. Your right to remove the trees but it may be more of a coincidence than the cause. I managed 100s of acres of old dikes and ponds. We never let trees grow and mowed them yearly to look for developing problems. Also spent a whole lot of money stabilizing them.

 

[LPgas only]

I have a pond that is about 1 acre+or-, last year we removed one dead and several live willow trees with an excavator, pulled the root balls out, pulld dirt from the pond and smoothed over the holes. The reason for removal was that I had noticed a wet spot below the levy downhill from the dead willow, so decided to take them all out. So, far I have applied 300 lbs. of bentonite, but I still have a significant leak and can't pinpoint where it originates. Any experiences or suggestion to share. Thanks Bill.

Dad always said if you want a pond just turn a bunch of hogs into a wet spot. They will seal it up for you.

 

[Texasmark]

My pond has 3-1 sloped sides....out 3' for each 1' of rise. Top is about 12' across. Soil is clay and for the first few years it leaked. Over time algae and pond weeds grew and died in the winter and deposited themselves all over the wetted area helping the clay to dissolve and contour to the dam stopping the leak.
Over the years the Willows started their usual thing and I must have had 20. In the summer I couldn't keep water in it. I cut them off at the ground and put some stump killer on the stump killing it. No more problems with summer drawdowns even with our currently dry summers....like 2-3 months with no rain.

I have seen the root system on Willows and it is huge. Pulling the trees out by the roots surely leaves large holes. Clay packs better than sand but you have to give the clay time to dissolve into a solid mass and then you will be set or get yourself a bunch of pond weeds and give it a couple of years to recover to speed up the process.

 

[JD Dave]

Once you find the leak or leaks dominate in a certain area, you can dig down a bit below the bottom of the pond outside of the area with a 12" bucket and fill it in with a heavy clay soil or maybe bentonite. My pond is bermed on one side and I did this and the leaks were eliminated.

 

[jwal10]

I worked for a guy that had the loggers that logged his timber build a pond. That winter it filled up and washed the dam out. It was not built right. I took a D-4 cat and moved the rest of the dam dirt back and dug out a trench and dug down in the pond to clay. Filled the trench and started rebuilding the dam with some of the old dam dirt, kept packing it in with a sheepsfoot roller. I lined the inside with 6' of clay. Built the dam 5' higher than before. The pond was about double the size. I put an outlet drain and a small ditch so that if it filled quickly it could overflow. Never did and the pond is still there today. I raised the dam on the city reservoir 3' when we added 3' flash boards to store 3' more water. Cut a Key down the length of the dam and filled the core with clay and hauled enough dirt to raise the dam. If it were me I would drain the pond down to well below where you pulled the tree. Remove any loose "mud" and till in bentonite well around the area, then pack with a sprocket roller or sheepsfoot. Or run hogs or sheep until well packed. BUT, I wouldn't let the dam dry out. Do it in the fall so you don't have to keep it watered all summer....James

 

[indianabuckman]

My one acre pond was leaking about 5 years ago and what I did was pump down the water about 10 feet from the bank and found a hole the size of a 5 gal bucket with a root running across the hole. Pull out the stick and dam dirt around the hole to keep water from running into it then I got the backhoe dug down to the rock base about 6.5 feet down by 6 feet long. Then I took 15 bags of bentonite and dry dirt from the pond I would pour in a bag of bentonite and a scope of dirt and use a compactor I rented and tamp it down then put in another bag of bentonite and scope of dirt and tamp that down. Repeat this until all 15 bags was use. Knock on wood this hasn't leak since.

 

[showcrop]

Earthen dams need a spillway incorporated. Otherwise when next year's 200 year rain event comes the water will overtop the dam and then it is gone.

 

[Bill in Colo]

Try a product called PAM we use it to keep stock ponds and irrigation ditches from leaking. Check with your local Conservation District.