# pond leaking



## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

My parents have a 1 acre round pond that i think has a crack in the bottom. They live in trenton and the soil is very rocky and I think when The guy dug their pond he didnt put any clay in it. It held water about half way to full when it rained for five years. After this may with all the rain I guess the pressure cracked the bottom because the water went down rapidly and drained losing all my fish I caught and stocked. I was thinking if I brought in loads of clay and rolled the clay about a foot deep if anybody thought that would work or had any ideas. Pond is 20' deep. I think I will put some structure in it too since we are starting over.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Dont make any assumptions! Get a pond expert there to determine the problem. Also, dont assume you can fix it yourself, its quite possible that the water would just eventually work its way around the clay. You could just be setting yourself up for another failure. 1 acre and 20 feet deep equals a lot of danger downstream if something were to go terribly wrong. You need to determine the actual problem before planning any sort of fix.


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## Day81 (Jun 27, 2008)

I agree with magis. My friend's cousin's pond had a leak in the dam a while ago. They fixed it once but then it started leaking again.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

imalt, you should have them contact Butler County Soil and Water and see if they can find the reason why it's leaking. Is it completely empty now? Any pics? http://www.butlerswcd.org/seasonal.htm


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Definitally have a professional investigate it... first off I'de recommend contacting the company who built it ask them to look at it as well as the SWCD in your area.


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## Pierino 1 (Jul 17, 2008)

I also have a seep or leak in my (1.25 AC x 14 foot) deep pond caused years ago by muskrats tunneling into the dam and some tunneling in the bottom of the pond. When water level exceeds the inlet holes, it spills through to the bottom of the dam outlet. I was told by an Ohio Extension Service Ranger the best way to resolve it was to drain the pond, wait months or a year for the bottom to dry out, have a bulldozer move the earth (mostly clay soil) around to fill all holes, apply a rubber liner on the bottom and allow mother nature to refill with rain water. Rather than do this, I am opting to plug all holes with bentonite clay (mixed with natural clay soil) that will expand up to 18 times its normal particle size and plug the holes. If this fails over time, I may have to resort to the Rangers suggested fix. A friend in the Blanchester area just had this procedure done in his .50 AC pond for $6500 and was very pleased. Hope this is helpful to you.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

You might try these guys too http://www.ess13.com/


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## CrappieKiller (Mar 14, 2008)

I know a guy who used this product or a similar one and it killed all of his fish


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Where was it and what was the product?


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