Earthen Dam and Spillway Update:
Here is the long awaited update on the meeting between DEP and our Engineer. The meeting was held last month. Brad Ellenberger, Sean Concannon, Tom Imblum and Mark Giunta (our engineer) met with DEP. The meeting went well and we are on the right track, yet there is a fair amount of work to be done before dam rehabilitation commences.
First, everyone agreed that the actual work of reinforcing our earthen dam is fairly straight forward. However, prior to drawing up and submitting a design to DEP, we have a number of steps to complete first.
Our first step is to work with DEP on the hydrology of the water body and commission a survey of the lake and feeder streams. Those preliminary determinations will then be the foundation to engineer the solutions for our earthen and concrete dams.
Broken down by increments, first our engineer needs to stake out what he believes to be the locations and elevations of our dam and spillway. This will be run past DEP for their approval.
Bennett’s Run diversion dam is part of this process, as the design of the diversion dam must take into account the amount of water that DEP believes is appropriate to direct to our lake, and come to agreement. Again, the incremental steps will be to stake out the location, and have DEP approve.
Once these two items are nailed down, we can proceed to commission the necessary surveys.
After the surveys, we will have to do watershed modeling.
Only after all of this is done can we proceed on the design for the rehabilitation of both Bennett’s Run dam, the earthen dam, and the spillway.
DEP observed that while the engineering is straightforward, the entire scope of the project with the various dependencies is one of the most complex dams with which that they are dealing! The good news is they are working WITH us, not against us! We hope to have an update prior to the annual meeting. We will keep you updated!
Annual Inspection:
The annual inspection was completed in December and has been sent to DEP. There were no major requirements but some minor repairs that need done. We will address them in the Spring.