East Branch Dam in need of repair

Saturday, July 16, 2011

JOHNSONBURG - Rainy weather has wreaked havoc out West when it comes to the dams, but steps taken out West shouldn't affect the timeline for repairs to be made to the East Branch Dam in Elk County.
Mike Rattay, project manager, said money to repair the East Branch Dam comes from a different area than money used for the recovery projects taking place out West.
At this point the plan is to begin the first phase of the project in September. This is contingent upon receiving approval from the assistant secretary of the Army, Rattay said.
If approval is received then the process will begin with the advertising for bids. Rattay said it must be advertised for 30 days before the bids can be opened. It will then take a few more weeks after that.
Before any of that can begin approval must be received, he said. He has not been given any indication of when it will be received, but there is still enough time at this point for construction to begin in September if the approval is received. The project is also funding dependent.
The first phase of construction will be to improve access to the site.
The access road from the state road needs to be widened and drainage needs to be improved, he said. There also needs to be an area to put trailers for construction.
The plan is to allow public access throughout this process. The boat launch was extended to allow access to the lake through Labor Day since the water level has been lowered.
There are private residences along the access road as well and they will need to be accessible throughout the process, Rattay said.
Since the need for improvements were identified in 2008, work has been done to protect the dam.
The water level is lowered 20 feet in the summer and 28 feet in the winter months.
So far this change has been sufficient. Rattay said the dam made it through the rainy weather without any further problems.
Between 2008 and 2009 a water intake control was added that allows more control of the temperature of the water being released, which is critical for industry and fish life
The work on the dam itself is scheduled to begin in 2013 with a full length cut-off wall to be put in place. This phase is also funding dependent.
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has been meeting periodically with the public and stakeholders to provide updates on the dam. The most recent one was in April. Another meeting will probably be scheduled after a decision is received on beginning the first phase.
In January 2008 dam safety studies showed the dam could have structural deficiencies that could cause it to fail unexpectedly.
To prevent the dam from failing the decision was made to reduce the water level about 20 feet to make it safer until steps could be taken to address the issues.
The original dam construction was completed in 1952. In 1957 erosion was found and corrections were made to it. In 2008 it was determined there is still a potential for seepage-related failure. The monitoring of the dam was increased to 24 hours a day seven days a week.
The need for repairs to the East Branch are rated as urgent (unsafe or potentially unsafe) by the Army Corp.'s Dam Safety Action Classes. This means the dam has confirmed or unconfirmed safety issues and could begin failing during normal operations or from a flood or earthquake.
Lowering the water level is providing improved safety conditions until necessary repairs can be made without causing significant impacts to the lake or water downstream.
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Reported by JoAnn Seltzer, Tri-County Sunday. Email:jseltzer@thecourierexpress.com.