That time I watched a pond turn from muddy brown to clear over 3 weeks

I was working a small farm pond job down in Greene County last month. The owner said it looked like chocolate milk for years. We ran the dredge for about 18 days, pulling out all that fine silt and muck. The water started clearing up around day 10, and by day 21 it was actually blueish green. He sent me a photo last week with his kids swimming in it. That kind of before and after is why I stay in this line of work, even when the equipment breaks. Has anyone else had a job where the results surprised you that much?

2 comments

2 Comments

river_fox1815d ago

Call that a win? You just scraped the top layer off and called it done. That silt is going to settle right back in the first heavy rain and turn it brown again. Wait until next summer and see if those kids are still swimming.

hugo_moore15d ago

Oh man, I've been there... that exact same thing happened to our little swimming hole a few years back. We thought we'd fixed it but every rain just brought more mud down. What actually worked for us was building a small stone check dam upstream to catch the silt before it even got to the swimming area. It wasn't fancy or expensive, just a pile of rocks we hauled in from the field. Took a weekend but stopped the problem for good. Also planted some grasses along the banks to hold the soil in place. Never had to touch it again after that.