02-01-2007, 06:17 PM
[size 2]Tuesday, 01/23/07[/size]
Corps fears dam in Ky. might fail
Water level will be cut in Lake Cumberland
[size 2]By Tom Loftus[/size][size 2]
The Courier-Journal[/size]
Federal authorities began lowering the water level in Lake Cumberland yesterday, citing fears that a weakened Wolf Creek Dam could break, causing massive flooding and possibly deaths.
"A high level of risk does exist," Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the Nashville District of the Army Corps of Engineers, said in a statement.
The corps announced that it would lower the lake's pool level by 10 feet to decrease pressure on the 240-foot-high dam, which is in Southern Kentucky's Russell County. The corps has begun working to correct a problem of water seepage through the dam's foundation.
The lake would remain at the new level -- 680 feet -- for at least a year and perhaps as long as seven years, a corps official said. That's 43 feet below the normal summer pool of 723 feet. The move will leave up to 90 percent of the lake's boat ramps out of the water and raise the lake's temperature, which could have a catastrophic effect on fishing for trout and other cold-water fish, state officials said.
"This could have a substantial economic impact on the area," Gov. Ernie Fletcher said at a news conference, adding that the lake attracts more than 4.7 million visitors annually.
He said the state estimates that in a four-county area alone -- Clinton, Wayne, Russell and Pulaski -- "the economic impact of tourism is about $152.6 million" annually.
But Fletcher said the safety of residents along the Cumberland River system downstream from the dam, which the corps puts in its highest-risk category, is the state's top concern. "Most important from our standpoint is that they (the Corps of Engineers) feel like it's an extreme high risk, and they are concerned about failure. The flooding that would occur from that can be catastrophic," he said.
Wilma Norris, 68, a secretary for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services who lives downriver in Cumberland County, said residents of the area are concerned about the situation. "The main question on people's minds is how much advance warning would we have to evacuate if the dam did break," she said.
Joe Hughes, emergency management director for Cumberland County, said that "would depend on whether the dam goes all at once, or just a piece at a time. Either way we would see a lot of property damage and maybe some loss of life."
Bill Peoples, a spokesman for the corps' Nashville office, said failure of the dam was not imminent. But he said evacuation plans should be ready in Nashville and other downstream communities, including Burkesville in Kentucky and Celina, Carthage, Gallatin, Hendersonville and Clarksville in Tennessee.
Peoples said a 2005 corps study estimated that a dam failure would lead to a loss of 56 to 230 lives in the area downstream through Carthage. "But we feel good emergency notification procedures will greatly reduce those numbers," he said.
The study also concluded that the dam's failure would cause $3.4 billion in property damage -- most of that in Nashville, he said.
The study led to a repair plan that recently began with a process in which grout is pumped into the ground at the base of the dam to reduce erosion. About a year from now, Peoples said, the second phase will begin, involving the installation of a 4,000-foot-long wall to stop seepage within and under the dam.
While plans were being developed for that work last year, Peoples said the corps' national office identified Wolf Creek as one of the six highest-risk dams of the roughly 700 the corps oversees. The national office's finding was confirmed by an outside team of engineers, Peoples said, leading the corps to announce that the water level had to be lowered immediately.
While Fletcher said he hoped the water level could be increased in about a year, Peoples said only that the corps will re-evaluate the situation then.
In his statement, Roemhildt said the corps understands that the decision "will adversely impact many people, communities and businesses. … But we must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself."
The corps said it has worked with state and local officials to develop emergency notification plans. It added that it plans to hold a series of public meetings about the situation.
It also said it would keep the public informed on the dam's condition and the progress of the rehabilitation work through news releases and postings on a Web site: [url "http://www.lrn.usace.army.%20mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo"]www.lrn.usace.army. mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo[/url]
Lake Cumberland guide Tim Tarter said lowering the lake level to 680 feet probably would "eliminate 80 to 90 percent of the current lake access. But the marina owners will have to make arrangements so (customers) can get their boats in. They'll have to put in more gravel or extend their ramps or something."
He added: "At 680 (feet), there's still a lot of water there."
[size 2]Tuesday, 01/23/07[/size]
Imminent danger?
Feds take emergency measures to protect Wolf Creek Dam[size 2]
By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
[/size]
[size 2]Commonwealth Journal
Wolf Creek Dam is at high risk of structural failure and the water level of Lake Cumberland is being lowered to at least 43 feet below the tree line throughout 2007 to decrease pressure on the dam.
Lt. Colonel Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, yesterday announced plans to lower the lake effective immediately to 680 feet above sea level. The decision is in response to Corps and independent studies that have classified the dam as being at "high risk" for structural failure.
The lake yesterday was 690.81 feet above sea level. A local marina official said he has been told the level will drop nearly 11 feet, to 680 feet, within the next 10 days. This was confirmed by Bill Peoples, chief of public affairs for the Corps’ Nashville District. Normal pool levels are 723 feet in the summer and 690 feet in the winter.
The Nashville District will maintain the 680-foot elevation for the remainder of this year and will reevaluate lake levels in the Sept.-Oct. '07 time-frame for next year's operation.
Dam safety experts will continually monitor conditions at Wolf Creek and further reductions may be necessary depending on the effect that lower lake levels have on the dam. The absolute lowest level of the lake is 610 feet — 70 feet below 680 — but this apparently would not be done without imminent catastrophic failure of the dam.
Lowering the lake level will reduce the risk of dam failure by decreasing water pressure on the dam and reducing foundation seepage. These changes are in concert with ongoing rehabilitation plans at Wolf Creek that address the problem of seepage through the foundation of the dam.
"Public safety is our paramount concern," said Roemhildt, "Since March 2005, we have modified the operation of Lake Cumberland to reduce high lake levels. We are now further lowering the lake levels to reduce risk. We understand that this decision will adversely impact many people, communities, and businesses that rely upon Lake Cumberland for project purposes and other uses, but we must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself."
Authorized project purposes for Wolf Creek Dam include flood control, hydropower, water quality, and recreation. The Nashville District is formulating a plan to mitigate effects to project purposes such as extension of boat ramps to allow additional access to the lake at this lower level.
Because of the seriousness of the foundation seepage problems at Wolf Creek Dam, the Army Corps of Engineers is taking these emergency measures to reduce the lake level and is initiating an accelerated grouting program.
"A high level of risk does exist," said Roemhildt. "Reducing lake levels lowers pressure on the dam and pumping grout into the ground lessens erosion, both of which immediately reduce risk." The Army Corps of Engineers has identified Wolf Creek Dam as one of the highest risk dams in the Corps Inventory.
The Corps will request full funding to accelerate construction of the remedial project. Nashville District has already awarded the first construction contract for the grouting program and grouting is under way.
The Army Corps of Engineers has an aggressive national Dam Safety Program that includes constant monitoring of all of the dams in the Cumberland River System. The Corps, in conjunction with state and local agencies, maintains emergency notification plans for each of its dams and these plans are used in the event of a dam failure. The Nashville District will continue to keep the public informed of the conditions at Wolf Creek Dam and the progress of rehabilitation work throughout the project with news releases and postings on this Web site:
[url "http://www.lrn.usace.army.%20mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo"]www.lrn.usace.army.mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo/ [/url]
The district will soon publish the time and location for a series of public meetings in nearby communities explaining the emergency measures, mitigation efforts, and dam safety. Additionally, the district will initiate alternative procedures to process an Environmental Impact Statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. Public and agency input will be solicited as part of these forums.
[/size]
[size 2]Tuesday, 01/23/07
[/size]Corps lists two dams in region as at risk
Leaky structures are now eligible for rehab funds[size 2]
By ANNE PAINE
Staff Writer
[/size][size 2]Two leaky dams upstream of Nashville are now among the first in line for millions of dollars in rehab work, thanks to being included on a federal list of problem dams that are at risk of breaking.
Wolf Creek Dam in Kentucky and Center Hill Dam east of Nashville can now qualify faster for what could be $550 million in federal funding after being named by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as two of six key Corps dams in trouble.
In the meantime, an emergency release of water from Wolf Creek Dam into the Cumberland River began yesterday to relieve pressure on the aging structure and avoid a possible Hurricane Katrina-like situation.
"That's exactly what they need to be doing," said William J. Anderson IV, who lives beside the Cumberland River in Nashville and has followed problems at Wolf Creek, 270 miles upstream.
The Corps has been reluctant to drop the water level, he and other critics have said, because it would hurt tourism and recreation businesses in Kentucky.
"The liability would be so high if Wolf Creek broke," he said. "It would put the river 50 feet higher in downtown Nashville. The stadium base would be flooded. That's a flood plain."
Wolf Creek is enormous — it's more than a mile long, and the reservoir it creates, Lake Cumberland, is the largest reservoir east of the Mississippi. If it broke, catastrophic flooding could hit towns up and down the Cumberland, including Nashville, Hartsville, Hendersonville, Gallatin, Goodlettsville and Mt. Juliet, Corps officials say.
Scenarios not pleasant
About 10,000 buildings in Nashville would be damaged in the Corps' worst-case scenario.
Floodwaters could carry buildings, fences, trailers and bridges down the river, causing damage that the Corps estimates at $3.4 billion in a worst-case scenario.
At Center Hill Dam, a break would send water into the Caney Fork River, which runs into the Cumberland River near Carthage, Tenn. Nashville, 50 miles away, could be hit with flooding, and a similar effect seen — though the water would subside faster than a flood from Wolf Creek, because its reservoir is smaller.
Officials say the dams' problems with leaks are a result of their age — both are at least 55 years old — and the geology that underlies them.
They were built with yesteryear's techniques over a typical karst terrain of eroding limestone. Over the years, water sloughs away the stone and can create caves and sinks.
The water moving through growing openings in the karst is getting around, under or through the dams. That can undermine their foundations.
"There are a lot of things we don't know as to the extent of seepage and erosion," said Col. Steven Roemhildt, head of the Nashville District Corps office.
No emergency release of water is deemed needed at Center Hill, though the Corps could change its mind later, the colonel said.
At Wolf Creek, the Corps has begun an accelerated program to pump grout into the foundation below the dam, filling cavities that opened with erosion. That's just one step in what is expected to be a seven-year program to shore up the structure.
Hearing about the lowered lake level, Jimmy Cunningham of Donelson said, isn't going to make him feel any better — "but it's nice that they're looking toward doing something instead of talking about it."
"Recognizing the problem is not even the half job. … What are you going to do when you lose lives and millions of dollars of property because someone is trying to protect recreational boating? It doesn't make any sense."
Release will have effects
The water release at Wolf Creek, which could take two weeks depending on rainfall, will raise the water level in the Cumberland River and lakes, including Old Hickory, for the short term, but not to flood level, an official said.
The more substantial effect would be expected in the hot months of summer, when water released from the dam would be warmer than that from a smaller lake. There would be lower levels of dissolved oxygen, which fish and other aquatic creatures need.
Fish kills, especially of trout in what have been the coldest waters just below the dam, could occur, Roemhildt said.
An environmental assessment will be carried out after the project is under way and not before, he said, because it's an emergency situation for dam safety.
Everyone should be prepared for a potential disaster, the colonel said.
"I would stress that anyone who lives along the Cumberland River below the dam needs to know how they get notification through their emergency management agency and have a plan for evacuation," he said.[/size][size 4]
Feds Fear a Dam Break in KY and Tenn[/size] By ROGER ALFORD
[size 2]Associated Press Writer (ABC News)[/size]
[size 2]FRANKFORT, Ky. Jan 23, 2007 (AP)[/size][size 2]— Fearing a dam break that could cause catastrophic flooding in Kentucky and Tennessee, the Army Corps of Engineers began lowering the water level on Lake Cumberland on Monday. [/size]
[size 2]The measure was aimed at reducing pressure on the weakened 240-foot-high dam, said Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the Corps of Engineers' Nashville office. [/size]
[size 2]"We must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself," he said in a statement. [/size]
[size 2]If the Wolf Creek Dam, which is nearly a mile long, were to break, flooding in communities downstream along the Cumberland River could kill people and cause an estimated $3.4 billion in damage, Roemhildt said. Cities along the Cumberland include Nashville, Tenn., whose metro area contains 1.4 million people. [/size]
[size 2]Corps spokesman Bill Peoples said failure of the dam was not imminent. But he said people should have evacuation plans ready in Nashville and other downstream communities, including Burkesville in Kentucky and Celina, Carthage, Clarksville, Gallatin and Hendersonville in Tennessee. [/size]
[size 2]Nashville officials said that they have a plan in place for any flooding but that any threat would be minimized once the lake's level is lowered. [/size]
[size 2]"We have re-reviewed some of the plan and addressed specific things that may need to be included if there's a breach in the dam," said Amanda Sluss, a spokeswoman for the city Office of Emergency Management. [/size]
[size 2]The dam, which has a concrete core surrounded by earth, was built near Jamestown in the early 1950s. The lake it holds back was created as part of a federal plan to control floods along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. [/size]
[size 2]Two recent studies raised questions about the dam's integrity, Roemhildt said. [/size]
[size 2]Water has been seeping under the dam and eroding the limestone on which the concrete rests, he said. He said crews were pumping grout into the ground to counter the erosion. [/size]
[size 2]Reducing the water level could have a major ecological and economic effect as well. Roemhildt said people can expect fish kills because of a rise in water temperature, and boats at marinas could be left high and dry. [/size]
[size 2]Kentucky Commerce Secretary George Ward said as many as 90 percent of the launching ramps will be unusable because they won't reach the water's surface. [/size]
[size 2]Lake Cumberland, about 100 miles southeast of Louisville and one of the nation's largest freshwater reservoirs, is a popular destination for boaters. A thriving houseboat industry has sprung up around the lake, which has more than 1,000 miles of shoreline. [/size]
[size 2]At a marina near Russell Springs, workers spent Monday moving million-dollar houseboats to moorings where they can stay afloat after the water recedes. [/size]
[size 2]"We're kind of at a loss," said Estelee Slusser, who operates the Alligator Dock No. 1 marina. "It has just happened so quickly. We really don't know what to do." [/size]
[size 2]The Army Corps notified local officials and business owners before making the plan public Monday. Slusser said she learned of it Friday. [/size]
[size 2]"We spent the whole day yesterday on the phone with customers, trying to calm them down," she said. [/size]
[size 2]Associated Press writer Dylan T. Lovan in Louisville contributed to this report.[/size]
[size 2]
January 12, 2007[/size]
[size 2]Dam repair underway
Levels to be announced later this month[/size][size 2]
By BILL MARDIS Editor Emeritus
Commonwealth Journal
Initial repair work has begun this week on ailing Wolf Creek Dam and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to announce no later than the end of January the levels to be maintained at Lake Cumberland during a seven-year refurbishing project to stop water seepage.
Lake levels are critical to a 10-county area, including Pulaski, where economies are tied directly to tourist activities.
“We’re getting close. We may have a decision within the next two weeks. We’re shooting for no later than late January,” said Bill Peoples, chief of public affairs for the Corps. If the level of the lake follows the same pattern as during a repair period in the 1970s, the water likely will be kept lower than normal to facilitate work at the dam.
Brigadier General Bruce Berwick, commander general of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division of the Corps, is the chief decision-maker for the water level. Peoples called its a corporate decision and said Berwick gets imput from district, division and headquarters of the Corps.
Peoples said Wednesday that drilling for grouting has begun this week and the actual insertion of grout into the earthen section of the dam will begin next week.
A Canadian firm, Advanced Construction Techniques LTD, has been given a $51 million contract to build grout curtains on both sides of a proposed concrete diaphragm. The diaphragm will extend through the entire earthen section of the dam and about 100 feet into the bedrock. A diaphragm extending some 25 feet into the bedrock was inserted into the dam in the 1970s after a serious leak was discovered in the late 1960s.
Peoples said the grout curtain will stabilize the earthen section of the dam where the diaphragm is to be inserted. It will also provide important information about conditions inside the dam, he added. Grouting is forcing liquid concrete into the dam under pressure.
Initial grouting will be done at what (the Corps) considers critical areas. Peoples said these problem spots are where the 3,940-foot earthen section of the dam ties in with the concrete section, and at the end of the cutoff wall installed in the 1970s.
Corps engineers announced in August 2005 that the dam which impounds 101-mile-long Lake Cumberland is leaking again.
The announcement was deja vu all over again. A muddy discoloration of water in the dam’s tailrace in 1967 warned engineers that materials were being washed from beneath the structure. A sinkhole was discovered near the toe of the dam on March 13, 1968. The pit grew to 10 feet in diameter and eight feet deep during the next two days. Another sinkhole developed in late April of that year about 75 feet from the first sinkhole.
After a dozen years and $103 million spent, the original diaphragm wall was completed. Engineers thought at the time that the problem was solved.
Estimates on cost of the current repair program range upward to $309 million.
Wolf Creek Dam is 158 feet high and 5,738 feet long. It impounds 63,000 acres of water with 1,255 miles of shoreline.[/size]
[signature]
Corps fears dam in Ky. might fail
Water level will be cut in Lake Cumberland
[size 2]By Tom Loftus[/size][size 2]
The Courier-Journal[/size]
Federal authorities began lowering the water level in Lake Cumberland yesterday, citing fears that a weakened Wolf Creek Dam could break, causing massive flooding and possibly deaths.
"A high level of risk does exist," Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the Nashville District of the Army Corps of Engineers, said in a statement.
The corps announced that it would lower the lake's pool level by 10 feet to decrease pressure on the 240-foot-high dam, which is in Southern Kentucky's Russell County. The corps has begun working to correct a problem of water seepage through the dam's foundation.
The lake would remain at the new level -- 680 feet -- for at least a year and perhaps as long as seven years, a corps official said. That's 43 feet below the normal summer pool of 723 feet. The move will leave up to 90 percent of the lake's boat ramps out of the water and raise the lake's temperature, which could have a catastrophic effect on fishing for trout and other cold-water fish, state officials said.
"This could have a substantial economic impact on the area," Gov. Ernie Fletcher said at a news conference, adding that the lake attracts more than 4.7 million visitors annually.
He said the state estimates that in a four-county area alone -- Clinton, Wayne, Russell and Pulaski -- "the economic impact of tourism is about $152.6 million" annually.
But Fletcher said the safety of residents along the Cumberland River system downstream from the dam, which the corps puts in its highest-risk category, is the state's top concern. "Most important from our standpoint is that they (the Corps of Engineers) feel like it's an extreme high risk, and they are concerned about failure. The flooding that would occur from that can be catastrophic," he said.
Wilma Norris, 68, a secretary for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services who lives downriver in Cumberland County, said residents of the area are concerned about the situation. "The main question on people's minds is how much advance warning would we have to evacuate if the dam did break," she said.
Joe Hughes, emergency management director for Cumberland County, said that "would depend on whether the dam goes all at once, or just a piece at a time. Either way we would see a lot of property damage and maybe some loss of life."
Bill Peoples, a spokesman for the corps' Nashville office, said failure of the dam was not imminent. But he said evacuation plans should be ready in Nashville and other downstream communities, including Burkesville in Kentucky and Celina, Carthage, Gallatin, Hendersonville and Clarksville in Tennessee.
Peoples said a 2005 corps study estimated that a dam failure would lead to a loss of 56 to 230 lives in the area downstream through Carthage. "But we feel good emergency notification procedures will greatly reduce those numbers," he said.
The study also concluded that the dam's failure would cause $3.4 billion in property damage -- most of that in Nashville, he said.
The study led to a repair plan that recently began with a process in which grout is pumped into the ground at the base of the dam to reduce erosion. About a year from now, Peoples said, the second phase will begin, involving the installation of a 4,000-foot-long wall to stop seepage within and under the dam.
While plans were being developed for that work last year, Peoples said the corps' national office identified Wolf Creek as one of the six highest-risk dams of the roughly 700 the corps oversees. The national office's finding was confirmed by an outside team of engineers, Peoples said, leading the corps to announce that the water level had to be lowered immediately.
While Fletcher said he hoped the water level could be increased in about a year, Peoples said only that the corps will re-evaluate the situation then.
In his statement, Roemhildt said the corps understands that the decision "will adversely impact many people, communities and businesses. … But we must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself."
The corps said it has worked with state and local officials to develop emergency notification plans. It added that it plans to hold a series of public meetings about the situation.
It also said it would keep the public informed on the dam's condition and the progress of the rehabilitation work through news releases and postings on a Web site: [url "http://www.lrn.usace.army.%20mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo"]www.lrn.usace.army. mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo[/url]
Lake Cumberland guide Tim Tarter said lowering the lake level to 680 feet probably would "eliminate 80 to 90 percent of the current lake access. But the marina owners will have to make arrangements so (customers) can get their boats in. They'll have to put in more gravel or extend their ramps or something."
He added: "At 680 (feet), there's still a lot of water there."
[size 2]Tuesday, 01/23/07[/size]
Imminent danger?
Feds take emergency measures to protect Wolf Creek Dam[size 2]
By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
[/size]
[size 2]Commonwealth Journal
Wolf Creek Dam is at high risk of structural failure and the water level of Lake Cumberland is being lowered to at least 43 feet below the tree line throughout 2007 to decrease pressure on the dam.
Lt. Colonel Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, yesterday announced plans to lower the lake effective immediately to 680 feet above sea level. The decision is in response to Corps and independent studies that have classified the dam as being at "high risk" for structural failure.
The lake yesterday was 690.81 feet above sea level. A local marina official said he has been told the level will drop nearly 11 feet, to 680 feet, within the next 10 days. This was confirmed by Bill Peoples, chief of public affairs for the Corps’ Nashville District. Normal pool levels are 723 feet in the summer and 690 feet in the winter.
The Nashville District will maintain the 680-foot elevation for the remainder of this year and will reevaluate lake levels in the Sept.-Oct. '07 time-frame for next year's operation.
Dam safety experts will continually monitor conditions at Wolf Creek and further reductions may be necessary depending on the effect that lower lake levels have on the dam. The absolute lowest level of the lake is 610 feet — 70 feet below 680 — but this apparently would not be done without imminent catastrophic failure of the dam.
Lowering the lake level will reduce the risk of dam failure by decreasing water pressure on the dam and reducing foundation seepage. These changes are in concert with ongoing rehabilitation plans at Wolf Creek that address the problem of seepage through the foundation of the dam.
"Public safety is our paramount concern," said Roemhildt, "Since March 2005, we have modified the operation of Lake Cumberland to reduce high lake levels. We are now further lowering the lake levels to reduce risk. We understand that this decision will adversely impact many people, communities, and businesses that rely upon Lake Cumberland for project purposes and other uses, but we must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself."
Authorized project purposes for Wolf Creek Dam include flood control, hydropower, water quality, and recreation. The Nashville District is formulating a plan to mitigate effects to project purposes such as extension of boat ramps to allow additional access to the lake at this lower level.
Because of the seriousness of the foundation seepage problems at Wolf Creek Dam, the Army Corps of Engineers is taking these emergency measures to reduce the lake level and is initiating an accelerated grouting program.
"A high level of risk does exist," said Roemhildt. "Reducing lake levels lowers pressure on the dam and pumping grout into the ground lessens erosion, both of which immediately reduce risk." The Army Corps of Engineers has identified Wolf Creek Dam as one of the highest risk dams in the Corps Inventory.
The Corps will request full funding to accelerate construction of the remedial project. Nashville District has already awarded the first construction contract for the grouting program and grouting is under way.
The Army Corps of Engineers has an aggressive national Dam Safety Program that includes constant monitoring of all of the dams in the Cumberland River System. The Corps, in conjunction with state and local agencies, maintains emergency notification plans for each of its dams and these plans are used in the event of a dam failure. The Nashville District will continue to keep the public informed of the conditions at Wolf Creek Dam and the progress of rehabilitation work throughout the project with news releases and postings on this Web site:
[url "http://www.lrn.usace.army.%20mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo"]www.lrn.usace.army.mil/pao/issues/WOLcommo/ [/url]
The district will soon publish the time and location for a series of public meetings in nearby communities explaining the emergency measures, mitigation efforts, and dam safety. Additionally, the district will initiate alternative procedures to process an Environmental Impact Statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. Public and agency input will be solicited as part of these forums.
[/size]
[size 2]Tuesday, 01/23/07
[/size]Corps lists two dams in region as at risk
Leaky structures are now eligible for rehab funds[size 2]
By ANNE PAINE
Staff Writer
[/size][size 2]Two leaky dams upstream of Nashville are now among the first in line for millions of dollars in rehab work, thanks to being included on a federal list of problem dams that are at risk of breaking.
Wolf Creek Dam in Kentucky and Center Hill Dam east of Nashville can now qualify faster for what could be $550 million in federal funding after being named by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as two of six key Corps dams in trouble.
In the meantime, an emergency release of water from Wolf Creek Dam into the Cumberland River began yesterday to relieve pressure on the aging structure and avoid a possible Hurricane Katrina-like situation.
"That's exactly what they need to be doing," said William J. Anderson IV, who lives beside the Cumberland River in Nashville and has followed problems at Wolf Creek, 270 miles upstream.
The Corps has been reluctant to drop the water level, he and other critics have said, because it would hurt tourism and recreation businesses in Kentucky.
"The liability would be so high if Wolf Creek broke," he said. "It would put the river 50 feet higher in downtown Nashville. The stadium base would be flooded. That's a flood plain."
Wolf Creek is enormous — it's more than a mile long, and the reservoir it creates, Lake Cumberland, is the largest reservoir east of the Mississippi. If it broke, catastrophic flooding could hit towns up and down the Cumberland, including Nashville, Hartsville, Hendersonville, Gallatin, Goodlettsville and Mt. Juliet, Corps officials say.
Scenarios not pleasant
About 10,000 buildings in Nashville would be damaged in the Corps' worst-case scenario.
Floodwaters could carry buildings, fences, trailers and bridges down the river, causing damage that the Corps estimates at $3.4 billion in a worst-case scenario.
At Center Hill Dam, a break would send water into the Caney Fork River, which runs into the Cumberland River near Carthage, Tenn. Nashville, 50 miles away, could be hit with flooding, and a similar effect seen — though the water would subside faster than a flood from Wolf Creek, because its reservoir is smaller.
Officials say the dams' problems with leaks are a result of their age — both are at least 55 years old — and the geology that underlies them.
They were built with yesteryear's techniques over a typical karst terrain of eroding limestone. Over the years, water sloughs away the stone and can create caves and sinks.
The water moving through growing openings in the karst is getting around, under or through the dams. That can undermine their foundations.
"There are a lot of things we don't know as to the extent of seepage and erosion," said Col. Steven Roemhildt, head of the Nashville District Corps office.
No emergency release of water is deemed needed at Center Hill, though the Corps could change its mind later, the colonel said.
At Wolf Creek, the Corps has begun an accelerated program to pump grout into the foundation below the dam, filling cavities that opened with erosion. That's just one step in what is expected to be a seven-year program to shore up the structure.
Hearing about the lowered lake level, Jimmy Cunningham of Donelson said, isn't going to make him feel any better — "but it's nice that they're looking toward doing something instead of talking about it."
"Recognizing the problem is not even the half job. … What are you going to do when you lose lives and millions of dollars of property because someone is trying to protect recreational boating? It doesn't make any sense."
Release will have effects
The water release at Wolf Creek, which could take two weeks depending on rainfall, will raise the water level in the Cumberland River and lakes, including Old Hickory, for the short term, but not to flood level, an official said.
The more substantial effect would be expected in the hot months of summer, when water released from the dam would be warmer than that from a smaller lake. There would be lower levels of dissolved oxygen, which fish and other aquatic creatures need.
Fish kills, especially of trout in what have been the coldest waters just below the dam, could occur, Roemhildt said.
An environmental assessment will be carried out after the project is under way and not before, he said, because it's an emergency situation for dam safety.
Everyone should be prepared for a potential disaster, the colonel said.
"I would stress that anyone who lives along the Cumberland River below the dam needs to know how they get notification through their emergency management agency and have a plan for evacuation," he said.[/size][size 4]
Feds Fear a Dam Break in KY and Tenn[/size] By ROGER ALFORD
[size 2]Associated Press Writer (ABC News)[/size]
[size 2]FRANKFORT, Ky. Jan 23, 2007 (AP)[/size][size 2]— Fearing a dam break that could cause catastrophic flooding in Kentucky and Tennessee, the Army Corps of Engineers began lowering the water level on Lake Cumberland on Monday. [/size]
[size 2]The measure was aimed at reducing pressure on the weakened 240-foot-high dam, said Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the Corps of Engineers' Nashville office. [/size]
[size 2]"We must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself," he said in a statement. [/size]
[size 2]If the Wolf Creek Dam, which is nearly a mile long, were to break, flooding in communities downstream along the Cumberland River could kill people and cause an estimated $3.4 billion in damage, Roemhildt said. Cities along the Cumberland include Nashville, Tenn., whose metro area contains 1.4 million people. [/size]
[size 2]Corps spokesman Bill Peoples said failure of the dam was not imminent. But he said people should have evacuation plans ready in Nashville and other downstream communities, including Burkesville in Kentucky and Celina, Carthage, Clarksville, Gallatin and Hendersonville in Tennessee. [/size]
[size 2]Nashville officials said that they have a plan in place for any flooding but that any threat would be minimized once the lake's level is lowered. [/size]
[size 2]"We have re-reviewed some of the plan and addressed specific things that may need to be included if there's a breach in the dam," said Amanda Sluss, a spokeswoman for the city Office of Emergency Management. [/size]
[size 2]The dam, which has a concrete core surrounded by earth, was built near Jamestown in the early 1950s. The lake it holds back was created as part of a federal plan to control floods along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. [/size]
[size 2]Two recent studies raised questions about the dam's integrity, Roemhildt said. [/size]
[size 2]Water has been seeping under the dam and eroding the limestone on which the concrete rests, he said. He said crews were pumping grout into the ground to counter the erosion. [/size]
[size 2]Reducing the water level could have a major ecological and economic effect as well. Roemhildt said people can expect fish kills because of a rise in water temperature, and boats at marinas could be left high and dry. [/size]
[size 2]Kentucky Commerce Secretary George Ward said as many as 90 percent of the launching ramps will be unusable because they won't reach the water's surface. [/size]
[size 2]Lake Cumberland, about 100 miles southeast of Louisville and one of the nation's largest freshwater reservoirs, is a popular destination for boaters. A thriving houseboat industry has sprung up around the lake, which has more than 1,000 miles of shoreline. [/size]
[size 2]At a marina near Russell Springs, workers spent Monday moving million-dollar houseboats to moorings where they can stay afloat after the water recedes. [/size]
[size 2]"We're kind of at a loss," said Estelee Slusser, who operates the Alligator Dock No. 1 marina. "It has just happened so quickly. We really don't know what to do." [/size]
[size 2]The Army Corps notified local officials and business owners before making the plan public Monday. Slusser said she learned of it Friday. [/size]
[size 2]"We spent the whole day yesterday on the phone with customers, trying to calm them down," she said. [/size]
[size 2]Associated Press writer Dylan T. Lovan in Louisville contributed to this report.[/size]
[size 2]
January 12, 2007[/size]
[size 2]Dam repair underway
Levels to be announced later this month[/size][size 2]
By BILL MARDIS Editor Emeritus
Commonwealth Journal
Initial repair work has begun this week on ailing Wolf Creek Dam and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to announce no later than the end of January the levels to be maintained at Lake Cumberland during a seven-year refurbishing project to stop water seepage.
Lake levels are critical to a 10-county area, including Pulaski, where economies are tied directly to tourist activities.
“We’re getting close. We may have a decision within the next two weeks. We’re shooting for no later than late January,” said Bill Peoples, chief of public affairs for the Corps. If the level of the lake follows the same pattern as during a repair period in the 1970s, the water likely will be kept lower than normal to facilitate work at the dam.
Brigadier General Bruce Berwick, commander general of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division of the Corps, is the chief decision-maker for the water level. Peoples called its a corporate decision and said Berwick gets imput from district, division and headquarters of the Corps.
Peoples said Wednesday that drilling for grouting has begun this week and the actual insertion of grout into the earthen section of the dam will begin next week.
A Canadian firm, Advanced Construction Techniques LTD, has been given a $51 million contract to build grout curtains on both sides of a proposed concrete diaphragm. The diaphragm will extend through the entire earthen section of the dam and about 100 feet into the bedrock. A diaphragm extending some 25 feet into the bedrock was inserted into the dam in the 1970s after a serious leak was discovered in the late 1960s.
Peoples said the grout curtain will stabilize the earthen section of the dam where the diaphragm is to be inserted. It will also provide important information about conditions inside the dam, he added. Grouting is forcing liquid concrete into the dam under pressure.
Initial grouting will be done at what (the Corps) considers critical areas. Peoples said these problem spots are where the 3,940-foot earthen section of the dam ties in with the concrete section, and at the end of the cutoff wall installed in the 1970s.
Corps engineers announced in August 2005 that the dam which impounds 101-mile-long Lake Cumberland is leaking again.
The announcement was deja vu all over again. A muddy discoloration of water in the dam’s tailrace in 1967 warned engineers that materials were being washed from beneath the structure. A sinkhole was discovered near the toe of the dam on March 13, 1968. The pit grew to 10 feet in diameter and eight feet deep during the next two days. Another sinkhole developed in late April of that year about 75 feet from the first sinkhole.
After a dozen years and $103 million spent, the original diaphragm wall was completed. Engineers thought at the time that the problem was solved.
Estimates on cost of the current repair program range upward to $309 million.
Wolf Creek Dam is 158 feet high and 5,738 feet long. It impounds 63,000 acres of water with 1,255 miles of shoreline.[/size]
[signature]