I remember a post from the past that mentioned there was some pond publication that was published by a company that was very well versed regarding common pond and lake problems. Does anybody remember the name of that company or publication??

For anything pond related there is nothing better than Pondboss magazine.

Here is the forum.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php

bentonite its drilling mud where are you at? its cheap and should be able to find it where the haul drilling fluids

Thanks guys! I am located about 60 miles NE of Dallas, but "pondboss"- that's it! Thanks

If you can get bentonite like mentioned above it does wonders. We've used it on several lakes/ponds we've built and there's a big difference in leaks after it's put out.

Must put lots of bentonite in because I've used it buy the butt load and it's never worked for me. All sandy loam area though might be the prob.

Can bentonite be just cast in the water and possibly be sucked into the leak, or does it have to be plowed in the pond bank when the water goes down?

I don't think it is recommended to plow it in. needs a thick layer to seal.
And if you have cows then they break the seal.
best bet is to remove all trees from around pond and have a really good clay brought in to cover. I know bentonite is a clay but --

We cast the bentonite into the water with a whirly bird fertilizer spreader mounted on a pontoon boat. Never had to drain the water to make it work.

Bentonite works great. We had to line our entire 5 acre lake with it to get it to hold water. Has been 5 years now and no leaks!

I built a tank/lake in front of my house that is approximatly 7/8 ac. I had an artesian well to fill it up, but where I built it, it wouldn't hold water. It was about 16 ft. deep at static level.

After filling it a few times with the well, I knew I had to do something. I went to Southern Clay Products in Gonzales. They make all kinds of things from Bentonite, including tank sealer. So I bought 2 pallets.

I put a flat bottom boat with a 5 hp. motor in the lake and had my trusty south of the border hand sit in the front of the boat, and pour a cup at a time in front of the boat and let the motor stir the bentonite into the water. This worked very well for us, and sealed my tank.

I don't remember the cost as it wasn't important at the time, I just wanted my lake to hold water.

I talked with some of the people at Southern Clay Products and they told me that it would have been easier to put bags in the bottom of the lake at a certain distance apart and disc them into the soil and then fill the lake up.

So, if you think your pond/tank/lake might leak, you might be better off putting bentonite down first, before it fills up.

This product has to be stirred up in the water to be effective. If not, it just balls up and sinks to the bottom. thats why on a drilling rig they jet it into the mud tanks as opposed to just dumping it into the mud tanks.