Glad you see the significance of treating it all with thoughtfulness.

Yeah, look into the de-mucking for sure. I used to know the numbers for it (with the muck value) but off the top of my head I think that 'good muck' (usable as fertilizer) comes out to something like a yield of 10k USD per one acre in retail value.

As for the dyes most of them (designed for that kind of thing) are super non-toxic (or harmful) and the dye dissipates after a few days.

If you look into the state guidelines around ponds/lakes you can generally find all kinds of helpful information on the care of them as well.

Also the EPA (in many states but not all states) is setup in such a way that they will come out, assess your particular scenario and help you not run afoul of their guidelines.

They get a bad rap but whoa they tend to really know their stuff... and are much more into helping folks before there are any problems... than afterwards when fines need to be levied.