Silt Happens!

[jinman]

I've mentioned many times in other threads that I have a couple of 3/4 acre ponds and frontage on a 20 acre soil conservation lake. The ponds and lake were started in 1940 and finished in 1941. That means it's been 65 years for silt to collect in my ponds.

Lately, we've had a long dry spell and one of my ponds has been dry for over three months. Due to having many other projects, I haven't hired anyone yet to clean out the pond with the proper equipment, but in my spare time I've started doing a little clearing with my tractor.

Here's a picture of the pond before I started.

 

[jinman]

I started to dig and found that about 18" down, the hard surface turn to soft sludge. Essentially the top was crusty and dry, but it felt like driving over a sponge. I was able to carefully remove about 200 yards of dirt from the middle of the pond by a tedious method of filling my bucket only halfway full so my front tires didn't penetrate to the muck. If the tires broke through, I had to dump my load and use the loader to push out and start over.

 

[jinman]

I was able to clean out around the edge of the pond some and all-in-all I got about 400 yards out. It was some of the most tedious work I think I've ever done and certainly not the ideal job for my little tractor. Right away I decided I need an excavator.

Here's a shot of my biggest pile of dirt. I have several others.

 

[jinman]

Of course the local inspector showed up to check out my work every day I was working. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[jinman]

I decided that if I was going to hire a dozer or excavator, the one question they normally ask is about how deep the silt is in the pond. That way they know what to expect. I thought the best way to find out would be to dig a sloping trench down into the muck and keep my tires at a level of the solid native dirt. Here's how it looked when I started.

 

[jinman]

This is the "stuff" I was digging out. I call this toothbar art. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jinman]

Going down...

 

[jinman]

Holy cow! That's deeper than the tractor wheels. Five feet deep and still going.

 

[jinman]

A nice big bucket of pudge. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[jinman]

And finally, the last picture of the trench. I continued on after this for another ten feet and the slope of the native soil started rising back up slowly as I approached the far bank. I think I can safely say that in the middle of the pond the silt is at least 7' deep. It appears that over 65 years, the average silt collection has been about 1/10 of a foot per year.

I now have a decision to make as to whether to go ahead and clean out the pond by hiring someone with the right equipment, or put off the job and let the pond fill back up with the rains that will surely come before long. Decisions, decisions.... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif