You can still get grants, funding assistance. Be careful with some, because some require the pond to be placed where they say and not you.

Start at your country Agriculture extension office and, Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board. Check out www.LandCAN.org

In my experience 10 foot will not be deep enough if you have a creek or a lot of runoff when it rains. In 5 years you probably be no more than 5 foot deep due to silt build up.

Go to the NRCS and get a soil analysis. They will tell you if you need to line it with bentonite. Don't waste money digging until you know if it will hold water.

This and do like others have mentioned, go see the county extension agent. There are grants for wildlife habitat development.

Good advice. Started the process on my 1 acre pond by inviting county ag agent out for opinion. Was a long process but turned out well.

an acre 10 ft deep is around 16,000 cu yards of dirt to move and shape. Need someone with a large dozer to move that much. Go to the local Soil Conservation office and they will have a list of vendors. At one time you could get some cost sharing but not so much anymore. They still offer some technical assistance in surveying and construction design of spillway.

nrcs and ducks unlimited, put in habitat.

Go to your local US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service office (formerly known as Soil Conservation Service). There should be one in practically every county in Texas. They can provide technical assistance on site suitability, design, lay-out, construction specifications, dirt contractors, average costs, and more. If they agree to provide staking assistance for a suitable site... they will expect you to construct it according to USDA-NRCS standards and specifications. The location and proximity to any other utility easements and property lines is a major factor in determining a suitable site. I was their technician in Erath County for 14 years and provided this type of assistance at no cost to the land owners in Erath County for approximately 500 farm ponds during that time. Cost-share programs come and go and stipulations for cost-sharing vary.

As previously said, NRCS can be a huge help. They also offer cost sharing programs for places that qualify. We participated in program last year and it was a pretty smooth process.

We did a "pit" type pond, no dam needed due to location. Pond dimensions are 90' X 110' with 10' depth and 30' floor, results in about an acre surface area when full. 3:1 sides on 3 sides and a 4:1 mouth. We also had plenty of clay, so holding water was not a problem.

I'm fortunate to have an older neighbor that is a top notch operator. Rented a D5K2 dozer with rippers and 3 days later pond was dug and ready. My cost was around $5,000.00 with rental, paying operator, and diesel.

I had 2 contractors look at this same project. One was $15K and the other $17K.

Check the county water conservation office. They should be the office to handle the grants. My cousin had a couple of them dug on his place. I think you need cattle in order to get the grant though.

grant can come from ducks unlimited, nrcs or other sources depending on what designation the pond gets.

habitat is easy to do/maintain but not sure what rules would come with it.

A note of caution... renting a machine and digging a hole yourself is not the best approach to getting a pond. There are some really serious consequences to digging into under ground utilities (gas, electric, water, sewer, phone lines...). You simply have to know what is there before you start moving any dirt.