Published: November 13, 2009 03:00 pm      

City frustrated over Caryonah Dam repairs

Crossville City Council members expressed extreme frustration over recent actions by the water quality department of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) threatening fines concerning the partial failure of the Caryonah Dam and the city's ongoing efforts to correct the problem.

The discussion came up under the city attorney's report as Ken Chadwell reported to the council about a series of correspondence between the TDEC water quality staff and the city. Chadwell said on the subject of the dam he was concerned about two aspects. The first is what to do with the dam and the second is how to handle the mitigation demands made by TDEC.

Bids for the repair work to fix the dam were scheduled to be opened Thursday after press time. Currently the city has $250,000 budgeted on the project, but also expect the cost could potentially be as much as double that amount. The repair of the dam is under the auspices of the office of safe dams that is a separate branch of TDEC. And this budget amount does not consider the possibility of potential fines for water quality damage.

Shortly after the dam partially failed in August this year the city received a notice of damage to the creek below the dam from so called “fugitive sediment” and requesting the city submit a plan to repair or mitigate the damage. A review of the state law showed that the there was a loophole in the law if the damage was caused by an “unavoidable accident.” Chadwell said that the city had responded to the original notice with that defense in a response letter to TDEC water quality but that office did not even acknowledge that and instead issued a “notice of deficiency” that indicated the city's response was inadequate and fines could follow if a mitigation plan was not submitted.

Chadwell then submitted another response again asserting the unavoidable accident defense but he said the TDEC office was reportedly preparing an assessment of civil penalty, essentially a fine. Chadwell added that such penalties can be quite substantial. He said he would do what the council directed but he offered what he called “practical advice” saying he felt the best action may be to prepare a mitigation plan saying the city would clean up the stream.

While Chadwell said that there have been several attempts by other entities to use the unavoidable accident defense, he added that no one had yet been successful in using that defense.

Crossville Mayor J. H. Graham III commented that the city was caught between to branches of the same agency giving opposing incompatible directions. In the discussion, it was pointed out that currently the city is pumping water out of the lake to keep the level down when it rains and that is continuing to cause sediment.

City engineer Tom Wolf pointed out to the council that any mitigation by the city is basically worthless until the dam is fixed. As water is pumped from the lake to keep pressure off of the dam and protect it from completely failing as required by the safe dams branch of TDEC, the sediment will continue to be a deposited below the dam in Panther Creek.

“We've got two different agencies giving us two different kinds of advice on how to handle this problem,” complained Mayor Graham.

“Lord help us!” commented councilman Boyd Wyatt.

Council members feel they are backed into a corner on the matter and directed city engineer Wolf to work with Chadwell to prepare a mitigation plan outlining removal the sediment from the creek for submission to the water quality office of TDEC. They hope to move forward with the dam repairs and hope to be able to deal with complications.

With all the additional expenses from unexpected projects, council members discussed a possible need for financing some of the cost during the audit committee meeting. City finance director Fred Houston was given instructions to look at expected expenses, grants and other funding and cash balances in city funds. Once Houston has completed his evaluation of the funding, he will report back to the council with recommendations for future action.

While sales taxes remain below levels for the previous several years, the amount is exactly on budget for the reduced amount set in the current city budget.