Clay for pond lining

[JeremyL]

I have a "pond" that doesn't hold water. After lots of research and conferring with experts, I'm pretty sure what I need is a couple of truck loads of good clean clay to spread over the bottom.

But I can't find a source of clay near Louisville, KY. Anybody have a suggestion?

 

[Bird]

I have no idea what kind of clay you can find in that area, or what it will cost, but I think bentonite is probably the best, but also probably the most expensive for that purpose.

 

[chh]

You would need several inches of clay spread over the bottom to get a good seal. I have always heard bentonite would do it mixed in with the current soil. You can also get plastic pond liners made for any size pond.

 

[EddieWalker]

How big is the pond?

To be watertight, I've always read that you need it to be two feet thick. Any thinner, and the water will go through it. When I hit sand while digging my pond, I dug out the sand extra deep and then filled and compacted it with 2 -3 feet of clay.

One yard of dirt will cover 12 square feet. A one acre pond will need over 3,600 yards of dirt to create a water tight seal. You really don't want to do this.

Betonite is an expanding material that helps stop or slow down a leak. It really needs to go where the leak is. It's not a pond sealer, and it requires clay for it to work. The clay has to seal the majority of the water, the betonite will only help the clay. Not replace it. Betonite is also expensive. Allot more money then clay.

If the pond is too big and/or clay is too expensive to bring in, rubber liners are your next choice. Again, lots of money.

Some ponds are better off being filled in and turned to pasture. It's a hard decision to make, but sometimes, it's the only realistic option.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[JeremyL]

The "pond" is small, about 170' by 200'. It has a nice dam and appears to have held water recently. (I have had the property for 3 years.) After a good rain water will be collected and then slowly dissappear. It drains all the way out, so my diagnosis is that the leak is on the bottom. No signs of water leaking through or under the dam. Our geology is lots of old, layered, cracked limestone; not the best for ponds, but neighbors all around us have perfectly serviceable ones.

This is small enough for a rubber liner, but $$$ and the fact that we have horses who might sometimes take a stroll through the pond makes me hesitate.

2 FEET of clay, Eddie? That is a lot of clay. The only source of bentinite that I can find is from Southern States at $10 for a 50# BAG. So back to my original question: where can I get truck loads of clay (or bentonite) near Louisville? I can spread it and work it in with my box blade; the bottom of the pond is fairly level, and there is good access into the bowl for my Kubota. I have scraped around with my box blade hoping to find a hole or other source of leak.

 

[JeremyL]

Pictures are worth thousands of words.

People in the bowl for scale.

The pond filled all the way only once in the past three years. (Ofcourse we have had a couple of bad drought years.)

 

[Western]

Jeremy,
try the pondboss.com site. allot of helpful info on pond problems..Your certianly not the 1st with this problem.

 

[The Dougster]

I feel your pain.... I have a pond that has leaked for many years... In January, I hired a fellow with a dozer to see what he could do... first thing he did ws get in the bottom and start digging to see if there was any clay there that might hold water... no clay, he promised to stop digging and go home and only charge for the time spent.
He did find clay about four feet below surface and thought there was sufficient clay to work with. I gave him the go ahead. Four days and $5K later, I had a beautiful and quite enlarged hole in the ground.... Now, if it would only rain. lol Good luck with yours.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Pictures are worth thousands of words.

People in the bowl for scale.

The pond filled all the way only once in the past three years. (Ofcourse we have had a couple of bad drought years.)

Thats a nice looking pond. We are lucky enough to have good water shed above us, we are a starting point of a creek and it never dries out completely. But it is low now even we had rain.

 

[Egon]

Bentonite is one broad clasification of the many forms of clay. It's probably one of the better know ones as in one of its forms it may be used as a sealer or to increase the weight of the fluid [Mud] when drilling holes in the ground.

For the situation as seen by us a liner may be the way to go. The liner can be placed and then dirt placed on the liner to protect it from damage.