Have a few questions regarding pond renovation......

[leeinmemphis]

Hey everyone,

I have had our farm for almost 7 months now and I am growing to love it more each and every time I am out there. We have 4 ponds on our place with the largest pond probably in the 3/4 acre range. I was told that it is around 50 years old and it is heavily silted in. The majority of the pond is less than 2' deep all the way across it. I think that the pond is probably 120' wide or so by maybe 300'. I am starting to think that I am going to want to renovate this pond next year. I have a couple of options and was wondering if I could get some input on them.

First off I am an experienced operator of backhoe, trackhoe, bulldozer, and farm tractors. I have a 416b extendahe 4wd backhoe, a cat e21 trackhoe, d4 dozer, and a kubota 50hp tractor with loader and lots of implements at my disposal. I am thinking about pumping out my pond(not disrupting the integrity of the ****) and trying to take the pond down with the equipment I have. Then go and take my equipment to remove what soil I can.

The other option is to hire someone to come in and take the water down(either by busting the **** or pumping) and then having them take the silt/muck out and repairing the levee. Or hire someone to come in with a large trachoe and take the muck out either with the water still in the pond or out.

I imagine that I probably am looking at an average soil level of 4-5' that will need to be excavated. The biggest problem with me doing it myself is that I do not have anyone else that I can have help me. So basically all of the work bill be falling on myself. I would also only be able to work on this during the weekends for the most part. I am not opposed to hire it out if I can get it done for the $7-8k range. I have an area that I could put the spoils that is probably 125 yards away so nothing would have to be trucked out. In an ideal world I guess I would drain the pond and excavate the spoils with a track front end loader but I don't have access to one of them and by the time I rented one for a month or two I imagine I could probably hire it out.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rambler]

In my state the govt would own those wetlands, & one couldn't do much at all but kiss the feet of the DNR dudes.

Sigh.

--->Paul

 

[wushaw]

Obviously the easy thing to do is hire it out. It sounds like you want to do it yourself with what you have and it can be done... but just weekends and a one man team will take time... lots of time.
Your worst enemy will be mother nature if you try it yourself with filling the pond every time you drain it, also after you drain it you need to let it dry a little or you may sink equipment if your not real careful.
Now if you were in Texas you wouldn't have to worry about this problem with mother nature, I am currently digging in one of my ponds that I drained the first of september, I just started three days ago and it is still wet but manageable.
I would say hire it out if you think it's reasonable and want it done in a timely manner.

 

[MarkV]

I am sure it varies by area and soil type so local advice is probably best. Here in N. Georgia I was told to expect about a year of drying time before equipment could work the red clay at the bottom of our pond.

MarkV

 

[lhfarm]

Lee,
Head over to Pond Boss Magazine Home Page! and click on the forum button (Ask the Boss) on the left. Lots of expert advice, along with the adventures of others.

 

[jinman]

Lee,
For a very long thread about my pond project that involved 65 years of silt, check the link below. I think you need to drain that pond with a trash pump and then probe to find out where the hard bottom really is. My pond had over 8 ft of silt in places.

Also, if that is your dam on the far side of your pond in the picture, you will never find a better time to get rid of those trees than while you are digging out the silt. If the far side is not a built up dam, then I wouldn't worry about it.

You seem to have the right type of equipment, but you have to be sure you are working on solid ground at all times. My pond was dry as a bone for over three months and it still had silt the consistency of pudding. As MarkV pointed out, a year's drying might get the job done, but you had better plan on working with/in mud.


Silt Happens

 

[leeinmemphis]

thanks for the information everyone. I forgot to mention that I am not in any huge hurry. In all reality I'ld prefer to wait until after deer season(jan 15th) to start so it'll likely have to wait until spring/summer to start. I don't mind hard work at all but I think this project is a little more than I can probably successfully bite off by myself. I have contacted a dirt contractor in the area(actually built the pond at my dads farm 4-5 years ago) and he is going to come look at it this weekend to give me an idea of what it'll run. Construction has slowed some in our area and it may be a good time to get a decent quote on some work. If I can get him to do what I want for probably $7-8k then I am likely to just go on ahead and tell him to put me on the list. I was already planning on re-doing the levee to get rid of the trees(I was standing on the end of the levee where this pic was taken) and I want to try to get the edges down probably around 3' because this pond has been growing some weeds i think was called something like "watershed" but don't quote me on that name.

ultimately I just want some place for me to take my kids to fish and catch a few decent bass. I just don't think I can do it with what I have now. So I just have to figure out if it is worth it for me to do it myself or to have it done. With everything I've done this past year and still have to do I imagine I will probably try to get this pond renovated by them. The other ponds are MUCH smaller and I can easily do them by myself later on when time allows.

This year i have taken down several buildings on the property. Burned down an old farmhouse and the fire got away from me and i received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 45% of my right arm. then I put in a small house trailer on the place, electricity, septic, well, renovated the barn, spread 125tons of gravel, put out 4 food plots, put a 5' culvert in a ditch that runs water year round. so i don't know if I really have the pond renovation in me. I'm getting a little tired of all the work and am looking forward to enjoying it a little

 

[Farwell]

Explore using a drag-line to remove the silt. The cost should be about the same as most other methods that you hire someone else to do and you can do the removal without draining the pond.
Just another option.
Farwell