Farm ponds, retention ponds, swimming ponds, and water feature excavation. Full site work from clearing to final shaping, dam and berm construction, and inlet/outlet installation.
Backwell excavates ponds for farm operations, residential properties, commercial sites, and stormwater management systems throughout Ovid, Seneca County, and the surrounding area. Whether you need a new farm pond for livestock watering and irrigation, a retention basin for a development project, or a recreational swimming pond, we bring the equipment and expertise to get the excavation done right.
Proper pond construction requires more than just digging a hole. We evaluate soil permeability, establish the right depth profile for your intended use, engineer the dam and spillway to handle your watershed, and install inlet/outlet structures to manage water levels. Our team handles all associated earthwork including clearing the site, shaping the basin, constructing the dam and berms, and final grading of the surrounding area.
Contact us today for a free estimate on pond excavation in Ovid. We will evaluate the site, discuss your goals, and give you a realistic project scope and price.
Ovid sits on the central plateau between Seneca and Cayuga lakes in Seneca County, on the narrow ridge of terrain that divides the two Finger Lakes watersheds. Soils across the village and surrounding agricultural-to-commercial parcels are predominantly Ovid silt loam — the series named for the town — along with Honeoye silt loam on the better-drained till, Lansing silt loam on the middle slopes, and Lima silt loam on the lower ground.
Drainage falls to both sides of the ridge through short, steep tributaries feeding Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake respectively. Commercial site work in Ovid regularly involves managing fragipan-restricted subsurface drainage across essentially all of the silt loam uplands, slope stability on the steeper western and eastern flanks of the ridge, and stormwater design that has to satisfy Finger Lakes watershed protection standards for either receiving lake. Shallow shale bedrock can appear on the highest ridge sections. Frost depth is moderate given the lake-moderated microclimate. Projects along Route 96 that climb toward Willard and toward Lodi routinely require rock excavation and slope stability engineering on the steeper ridge flanks.