Loosing water in pond

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

We have a pond with a bridge across it that is loosing water, about 1" everyother day. It is a larger pond, not a garden pond. It's about an acre. How do we stop the leak? I can only assume it is leaking where the post were dug for the bridge. They were dug then concreted in then covered back over with dirt. Please help. The pond is stocked with bass and catfish. So we need a solution that will not harm them.

-- Tonja Bercher (donton@fbt.net), April 16, 2001

Answers

Bentonite clay might help... Not sure though.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 17, 2001.

Coould it just be evaporation?

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), April 20, 2001.

If the problem isn't evaporation, then assume you have a hole in the liner, which is probably clay or hardpan. If the leak showed up only after you built the bridge then you're probably right, it's probably the posts. You'll need to drain the pond back down and seal around those posts, either with additional concrete or with a minimum of 2 feet of clay. Another possibility if you have a lot of cattails is that the cattails punctured your liner. Their roots are very sharp and long- reaching, and can go through clay and hardpan. A water garden landscaper I was speaking with yesterday said this happened at the pond of one client she had. The pond had a clay liner.

-- Sheryl Adams (radams@sacoriver.net), April 21, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ