Nicholas Lecatsas

George Yacus wrote:Hi Nicholas,

I hope it all worked out for you in the end.  I'm curious...what kind of short and long term fixes did you end up choosing?  Any key revelations, or share-worthy lessons learned -- whether good or bad?

SEE MY MOST RECENT REPLY!

Anne Miller wrote:I too would love to hear if Nicholas was able to fix the dam until I realized that this thread is from 2018.

Until that realization, I was going to suggest lots of rocks and clay.

SEE MY MOST RECENT REPLY!

TO ALL WONDERING ABOUT AN UPDATE!!!

Wow where has time gone. I apologize for the response delay!

LONNNGGG story short...... we fixed the original hole in the pond by placing gabion baskets filled with 2a, and building a series of walls of landscape block with mortar and filling the rest in with 2a. What a project! My father and I got it done! We finished up by putting bentonite clay along the inside of the pond wall where the hole was!

Wow did our troubles just begin!

Fast forward to 2020, a huge hurricane comes through and the raging river eats away a good chunk of our dam on the creek side. (our pond dam is the same land as the streambank.) A HUGE sycamore tree toppled over and brought half the dam with it! Township became concerned with possible dam breach and water flooding downstream structures.

We get a chapter 105 permit and hire a contractor to bring in 400 tons of r5,6,7,& 8's.

$34,000 later and the wall is FINALLY FIXED.

PONDS ARE GREAT BUT THEY CAN BE A PAIN IN THE NECK!

We just bought this property under a year ago. And we knew there was a leak but didn’t know it was this bad. We think a muskrat dug a hole and eroded away enough dirt under the dam that it uprooted a tree and created a gaping hole in our dam. Where the hell do I start here. I need your help. I have a John Deere 1025R with a backhoe and bucket attachment. As well as a John Deere gator. Do I dump stone in steel fencing crates and place them in the hole and back fill with soil and a layer of bentonite clay on the inside? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks. PS. The last photo is after a huge rainstorm. It was running like crazy.