A Question About Soil Compaction And Settling

[Mmathis]

On average, how long does a pond continue to "settle," and what about the soil berms around the perimeter?

Our pond is a year old. We have nice clay soil. Our summer project (besides building a bog garden) will be to finish "rocking" the edges. I can see some places that have flattened a little, so will pull back the liner and add more soil (and smash it down good) before adding the stone. But overall, the berm appears stable.

We left about 2 feet (though it seems like a mile!) of liner exposed, and there's still a lot that we have tucked under. It really is bulky and in the way, and I would LOVE to cut off that excess (that that's over 2'). Is that OK at this point?

 

[addy1]

We have a mix of clay and shale, a little plain old dirt. My bog berm is 5 feet high, from 5-4 feet wide, 30 foot long. I had a tiny bit of settle the first summer nothing since, in just one spot. The big pond, I did not notice any settle, i.e. liner shifting, after filling it. The stream I had a few spots settle the first summer, just added a little dirt to the down slope side and all was fine and has been fine.

My guess is you are probably ok to trim back the liner. I actually trimmed some of mine the day I put it in, did not cause any issues.

This is its third summer, I did not find any low spots after winter.

 

[HTH]

Our 8 year old pond soil is a clay sand mix and the berms settled. When did it stop? I am not 100% sure that it did as the low point in the edge seems to change over time. Or maybe that is me fixing on spot and overfilling it to reveal the next. But I think it has gradually settled. It seems much shallower now then when it was first built.

That should not keep you from cutting the liner. Repair berm 1st, then cut and bury as much of the spare as you can. I try not to cut liners but I understand needing to. My largest liner moved with us twice.