Leaking dams at Badgingarra

Farmers in the Badgingarra area have reported that up to 70 per cent of their hillside dams fail because of excessive seepage. The failures have occurred, so the reports say, despite the fact that proposed sites were test bored and soil samples hand textured before dam sinking, and despite the fact that most of the subsoils contain more than 20 per cent. clay. Because farmers in the area have been dependent on earth dams for water supplies since farming commenced in the area in the mid- 1950\u27s, this research was commenced to find what chemical and physical subsoil properties might be allowing seepage. The research has been carried out by Soil Research and Survey Officer Mr. R. G. Pepper