Building Lake Corona

[newbury]

With both my businesses currently tanking due to this virus I really needed some stress relief. Today I decided to start on what I'm calling Lake Corona. In all honesty it will be a very small pond, something to remember this crazy time years from now and to hunt over, but Corona pond just doesn't have the same ring to it. If it holds water maybe some day I'll get a dozer in here and really go to work but for now the track loader will have to do.

Day 1
I spent the first half of the day taking out trees and clearing top soil. Here's a before pic.

4 years, how many man hours?
And you find

Started mucking out the pond today before the rain started this afternoon. I may have found my problem, or at least one of them. While mucking I hit rock in the shallower flat area away from the dam so started digging a bit and found a pretty good size area of rock and sandy soil just under the clay. Its roughly a 25x40 area and there is very little clay cover. This could be the reason it's only filling so full. I think it's possible increased pressure as the pond fills may be accelerating the loss. I've going to have to dig as much of this area out as I can, will then probably cover in bentonite, then repack with good clay before doing another bentonite treatment along with the rest of the pond. This area would have been the bottom of the ravine before I started work.

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Did you study the geology of the area?
Do any soil cores?
You could have "lenses" of rock and sand forming drains for your pond.

 

[bindian]

Glad you found that gremlin. Can't believe you didn't find it when digging the basin.

 

[dodge man]

I’m a retired land surveyor and worked for a civil engineering firm. We did surveying and engineering on some lakes. You start getting into soil borings, surveying, engineering and permits you get into some serious money.

 

[jk96]

4 years, how many man hours?
And you find


Did you study the geology of the area?
Do any soil cores?
You could have "lenses" of rock and sand forming drains for your pond.

I dug it during covid and haven't done anything with it since then until recently. This has not been a 4 year project. It filled halfway and then life returned to normal. I'm just now getting back around to trying to get it to fill the rest of the way. I never tracked hours on the machine.

 

[jk96]

Glad you found that gremlin. Can't believe you didn't find it when digging the basin.

I started to see a few signs of rock and stopped digging. Didnt realize how widespread it was and how close to the surface until today mucking it out.

 

[bindian]

I'd dig it all out or seal it good with 6-12 inches of red clay.

 

[jk96]

I'd dig it all out or seal it good with 6-12 inches of red clay.

I'm going to dig as much of it out as I can unless I get into solid ledge then will backfill and compact with clay. Heavy thunderstorms here at the moment and then more rain Sat, Sun, Mon so on hold for awhile.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sure looks like you found the problem with all that rock. It makes me wonder what the path is that the water takes when it gets to the rock, but I know that's just about impossible to figure out.

When I hit sand while building my pond, I dug down at least two feet in every direction to make sure there wasn't any more sand. My fear for the longest time was that there was another pocket of sand just below the clay that I never found. Once I had that area dug out, I filled it with my best red clay in lifts of about six inches, until it was 2 feet thick.

Have you ordered the bentonite already? With what you've discovered, and the quality of your clay, I don't think you need bentonite.

 

[jk96]

Sure looks like you found the problem with all that rock. It makes me wonder what the path is that the water takes when it gets to the rock, but I know that's just about impossible to figure out.

When I hit sand while building my pond, I dug down at least two feet in every direction to make sure there wasn't any more sand. My fear for the longest time was that there was another pocket of sand just below the clay that I never found. Once I had that area dug out, I filled it with my best red clay in lifts of about six inches, until it was 2 feet thick.

Have you ordered the bentonite already? With what you've discovered, and the quality of your clay, I don't think you need bentonite.

No I put the bentonite on hold. I wasn't confident with the late season that I could get it done before winter set in and didn't want to store it. I also felt it would probably be best to make sure soil is stable around the pond that I cleared. Don't won't to spend a lot of time for it to just silt in a bunch while filling. If I can get to it this fall I'll tackle the rock area I found then see what happens in the spring before doing bentonite. Last nights rain should give me a good idea of soil stability. It came down hard and fast for awhile. I'll head back when I have some light to take a look.

 

[jk96]

Started round 2. Winter is finally behind us here I think and ground is drying out fairly fast now. Spent some time yesterday morning and then a lot of today and got the soil mucked out. I've dug down to solid ledge and removed a ton of sandy soil and rock. All of the spoils have been taken to the back side of the dam. I'll grade it out after it dries.

Last fall when I siphoned the water out water was pulling from a hole in the dam. I assumed the end of the tube was under silt. Today in mucking out the pond I found the end of the drain lower and almost silted over which means I have a break in the pipe that will need fixed. Probably same problem I had on the backside in not keeping pressure long enough while the glue set.

After most of the muck out. The entire center area of the pond is solid limestone now. Will start next covering everything in about 12" of clay.

I'm planning to bring the clay from the hillside where my loader is sitting in this pic. Most of the topsoil is already stripped so just a matter of pushing downhill, spreading, and compacting. Will cover first, compact, spread and till in bentonite, then compact one final time. Hoping to spend a couple of hours tomorrow pushing dirt. I traded in my Case TV450B last month for the bigger TV620B and this machine can move a lot of dirt for a CTL. I should be able to make pretty quick work of getting the clay moved.