Failed Lake Fix

Near Austin, Texas

The land tract is approximately 100 acres near Austin TX. The land is rolling with open pastures, some elevation changes and soil types ranging from heavy black soils to clay and rock. The project goal was renovate a washed in failed pond and install a plastic liner so that it would hold water.

The challenges associated with this project were-

Separating the different soils so that they could be used in the correct locations during the construction process.
Creating a clever design that incorporates the elevation changes, water drainage patterns and lines of sight into the overall landscape aesthetics.

The surface acreage of the pond was 1.47 surface acres. From the drone pictures you will notice a somewhat unusual overall design. This was due to the elevation changes, inbound water points and the water discharge area.

A 60 mil HDPE liner was installed on top of a clean well compacted subgrade. An 8oz. geo textile fabric was placed under the liner in an area where the rocks were not integrated smoothly into the sub grade. The 8 oz. geo textile fabric was placed on top of the entire liner to protect it from rocky cover dirt. Geo composite was used to cover the liner where rip-rap rock was used for inbound waterways.

An 8 inch PVC siphon pipe was used to establish the water elevation. The siphon pipe will discharge “dead” water (stagnant and low on oxygen) from the lower depths once the water elevation reaches a full level. Discharging the dead water lying in the lower depths is preferable to discharging the water on the ponds surface because the surface water is fresh and full of oxygen. Quite often after a long hot summer when the fall rains come and your pond discharges for the first time the water will smell like a sewer.