Cleaning a Muck Filled Pond Before its Dry

[scesnick]

Well, I got my 3/4 acre pond pretty close to drained. Just a small bit of water laying here and there. I planned on letting it dry for a few weeks atleast before starting to clean it out.
But, as you guys know, nothing ever goes quite as planned. My friend owns a coal company and he was gracious enough to let me use one of his smaller excavators to clean the pond for minimal cost. So, I said great ! I will let you know when I need it... Well, something got lost in translation and the excavator showed up at my house on a trailer this morning !!

Any advice on how to attack this freshly drained pond? It does have a gradual slope to get down into it, so that is a plus. I also have a Kubota MX 5100 with a FEL to assist in this mess. I was thinking of taking the excavator to the edge of the pond, digging out a spot close to the gentle slope and find some hard ground under the muck and then get the tractor in and take it out a bucket at a time???
If anyone else has any advice I'm all ears....

 

[RobertBrown]

2 years ago, I did the same thing to my pond. I learned that the ground may appear to be firm but it's not.
I was using my wheeled tractor and an FEL. As soon as i filled the bucket I was stuck, sunk like a stone. I was able to get un stuck after I emptied the bucket and used it to get out.
I learned to wait as long as you can before getting in, allowing as much moisture to evaporate as possible, and stay well clear of the muck in the center.
Building a ramp and using a blade I was able to move dirt towards and near the ramp and then scoop with the bucket on the way up and out, keeping the weight on the rear wheels.
That way i didn't have go far or to 3 point turn with the bucket full .

 

[MossRoad]

Well, I got my 3/4 acre pond pretty close to drained. Just a small bit of water laying here and there. I planned on letting it dry for a few weeks atleast before starting to clean it out.
But, as you guys know, nothing ever goes quite as planned. My friend owns a coal company and he was gracious enough to let me use one of his smaller excavators to clean the pond for minimal cost. So, I said great ! I will let you know when I need it... Well, something got lost in translation and the excavator showed up at my house on a trailer this morning !!

Any advice on how to attack this freshly drained pond? It does have a gradual slope to get down into it, so that is a plus. I also have a Kubota MX 5100 with a FEL to assist in this mess. I was thinking of taking the excavator to the edge of the pond, digging out a spot close to the gentle slope and find some hard ground under the muck and then get the tractor in and take it out a bucket at a time???
If anyone else has any advice I'm all ears....

You also may want to dig a test hole and see if it fills with water. If it does, maybe get a pump to assist with drainage.

Also, make sure you aren't in one of those locations that if you dig too deeg you go through a layer of clay and the thing never holds water again.

Finally, make sure you get any required permits or you could pay dearly.

Best of luck and please, POST PICTURES!!!! We love pictures of projects. :laughing:

 

[jonyyuma]

We just had a lake cleaned, Over 2FeeT of muck, ditto on the non-firm ground. Crawler retrieved it..

 

[jinman]

I think you'll have two problems. Getting under the muck to find firm soil is one problem, but getting the excavator bucket to shed sticky sucking muck is another problem. Maybe your muck won't be sticky, but if it is, it could be a miserable job. Also, you can really hope that once you dig a trench to solid soil, the walls don't keep crumbling in.

I had a pond so dry that I could drive across it, but found that 18" down, it was pudge. Ponds can take forever to dry out.

 

[DieselMonk]

I have to do the same thing this year. I plan on cleaning out the muck an deepen one side of it, trying to get more ground water, as I lose too much during the summer time. I am planning on doing that with a combination of my old little Case Dozer and my Case Backhoe with extendaboom. My pond is not the size like yours, but big enough for me.

 

[TripleR]

There is no "firm" ground under a freshly drained pond. We even waited three weeks and went down five feet without finding any. We mucked it out as best we could, but it wasn't pretty.

 

[scesnick]

I really have no choice but to "Dive In" right now before it dries at all. I did get all the permits. The good news is that the pond was only 6 ft deep when it was built and it really doesn't have a terrible amount of muck in it. Hopefully this is goes well.... lol

 

[scesnick]

Well, I got home from work last night with about 20 minutes of daylight left. So, I jumped in the excavator just to see exactly how deepp the muck is. well, it only seems to be about 2ft deep. It looks like I can get my tractor down in there and scoop the muck with the FEL once I clear a good spot with the excavator.

Now i gotta find a way to limit th amount of water coming into the pond from the springs...

 

[TripleR]

On one pond we set up a gas powered pump to keep the water from collecting and ran it as soon as there was any buildup. We rigged up a bucket and screening to keep from plugging it up.