billboards for pond liners

Been looking into natural pools and found this with a search for pond liners.
http://billboardtarps.myshopify.com/collections/pond-liners

Anyone have experience with these? Would the vinyl be leached into the water? Is this better than plastic or rubber? I would think reused is better than new.

I have used them for a number of things, pig shelters, chicken tractors, hay drying, concrete forms, etc.

Here is my latest favorite use: http://velacreations.blogspot.com/2011/12/rapidobe.html

I would think that they could leak stuff into the water, and I wouldn't be comfortable with it. That being said, if you washed it out real good beforehand, it might do better.

also, I think anti-mildew means it has fungicide or something on it.

John, funny you should ask. Tomorrow I am getting ready to revamp my little pond made with a billboard liner. Will post pics and details. Right now I'm sitting for a minute before dinner but will fill you in more later.

John, I didn't want to totally hijack your thread so I posted info about my pond on my 'projects' thread here: https://permies.com/t/14906/permaculture/Jeanine-permaculture-projects#135184

I really enjoy the pond. I have had small 40 gallon contraptions for years. I always try to make sure that there are very shallow areas and moist rocks to land on for butterflies, birds, dragonflies and lizards.

The only time I ever 'clean' it is after all the leaves are off the trees and then I will just take a net and scoop out the major chunks of leaves. Also the waterlily roots can become massive so I will divide them every couple of years or so. You just have to remember that wildlife have laid their eggs in these leaves and roots so when you 'clean' you are destroying a bit of habitat. I just like to overflow a bit and I don't worry about algae or clear water. Natural ponds are seldom crystal clear. I have had fish living in a 40 gallon pot for three years until a dog climbed into it and destroyed everything. No more dog.

We have several of the billboard tarps. Very heavy. I think it could work well, as long as there is a thick layer of sand over it and no animal traffic or other pokies. However, a real pond liner is much thicker and will self-heal to a degree. Best of all, clay in the soil.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop

PVC phatalates are maybe the worst, but there are a lot of warnings about this on the aquaculture web sites.

Inks, sealants, coatings, uv resistants, other plastacizers.

just think of it as an experiment ......

Nice thing about a used billboard tarp is it has spent years out in the weather getting washed by the rain.

Dilution is the solution to pollution.

In other words, it's probably not going to leach much.

I have a large freshly dug pond. I put filter fabric down as a underlayment. The pond is about 4600 sq ft. I am using billboard tarp liners. Patched all holes with flex seal tape patches. The seams are 36 ft long. I am trying to use hh66 glue and its quite hard to do in the pond so i am also having trouble doing it in the yard . Anyone know a easy method of doing it right in the pond. Shelf life is 18 months on hh 66 vinal cement and mine is a bit older. Does not seem to be working well. I may need fresh glue. Quite a large job for one 67 year old man. Please send ideals

Hey Chris, welcome to permies!  I experienced a lot of the questions you have. I also tried to glue seams in PVC and it just did not work.

I just read through the previous replies.  Let me tell you a few things.  One is that it does not matter how long a billboard tarp is exposed to the elements, it will still leach potentially toxic chemicals. (In fact the longer it is exposed to sun, the more readily it breaks down.) Not just from the printing ink (which is bad) or the antifungals (which are bad.)  But also because the plasticizers in PVC itself are an analog to human growth hormone. They readily leach into water. That means if you eat anything that swims in that water or grows from that water, you are feeding your body with artificial growth hormones.  For most people that's no problem, but the rest could have weird side effects. (strange hair growth, acne, in some cases cancer.)

If you never intend to eat anything from that water, the news is still not good.  The PVC cements will last a long time but not forever.  Think pool floaties.  That's basically what you are trying to do.  Creating a giant pool floatie with no holes.

If you are going pond liner at that scale, your best bet is DuraSkrim.  It is virgin polyethelyne with no plasticizers or side effects.  It is UV stable, triple layered, and reinforced. It comes in very large sizes. It can be heat welded to make a watertight seam as strong as the material itself. It is expensive.

That is why the most popular and trouble free method is gleying.  That's where you have a bunch of pigs wallow in your intended pond location until the soil is compacted. They basically act as a flocculant.  This works best if your soil is heavy in clay or if you import bentonite clay.  There's a lot of debate about whether bentonite is environmentally responsible but in truth you can't know unless you know the source.  

If you don't have access to pigs you can gley by using organic matter such as grass clippings or straw, lay them in a thick mat over the pond bed, then suffocate them in order to make them anaerobic.  They will break down into a gelatinous, watertight layer.  You then put more soil over top to protect that layer and then you can fill the pond.

This is a complex issue but I hope some of that helps you.

Rob is correct, gleying a pond is MUCH less toxic.
I was going to post a few links, did a search here, and got 111 threads on gleying a pond!!
So I'll link the search instead! Much less effort to type!

Search on Permies.com for GLEY  click that for all kinds of information!

Welcome to permies!
:D