Berkeley Lake might be on the hook for more than $3.5 million in flood-related repairs to its dam — that’s if FEMA remains firm on chipping in what the mayor calls a “minimal amount of money.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency maintains that damage to the dam related to the storm was much less than what the city claims.
The Berkeley Lake dam, one of the state’s largest earthen dams, suffered a 32-foot-long slope failure during September’s deluge.
In a meeting last week with city and state officials, FEMA said it would fund less than $500,000 of what the city estimates is a $4 million repair bill. FEMA had indicated this year it would pay up to 75 percent for repairs resulting from a natural disaster.
“Essentially, FEMA is offering to repair the part that you can see with the naked eye,” city engineer Rich Edinger said Friday. “But the damage you see with your naked eye is merely a symptom.”
The city contends the rains also damaged the internal drain system, which collects water and pipes it away. FEMA sees that system, installed during a 1980 upgrade, as a “pre-existing condition” and questions its connection to the 500-year storm, Edinger said.
FEMA spokeswoman Jody Cottrill said the Gwinnett County municipality of 2,000 is asking the agency to go beyond the scope of the storm’s damage. She couldn’t comment on the drain system, but she said the city wants FEMA to pay for a major renovation of the dam. That includes reconstructing the downstream face, widening the base, relocating a road and purchasing private property, she said.
“We have a legal mandate,” Cottrill said. “We can only repair to the conditions that something was in at the time of the disaster.”
Built in 1947, the dam is 85 feet high and 900 feet long and holds back about 2,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is equivalent to 326,000 gallons.
Mayor Lois Salter wants to sit down with FEMA officials to discuss the matter further. A meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Friday.
“I don’t know what to say except to say they’re hanging their hat on the fact that the dam was built a long time ago and was renovated in the 1980s,” Salter said. “I was truly shocked [by FEMA’s decision]. That’s a very minimal amount of money.”
The mayor has enlisted the help of federal legislators. She’s also responding to phone calls and e-mails from Berkeley Lake residents, “who as you can imagine are very, very distressed.”
City and state officials have maintained they don’t believe the damage poses a threat to the dozen or so homes downstream of the dam on North Berkeley Lake Road. Still, at the urging of the Safe Dams Program, the city in September lowered the 88-acre lake 10 feet to reduce pressure on the dam.
Just lowering the lake has put residents on edge, Salter said. The reduced pool has diminished the lake’s beauty and driven down property values, she said.
To repair the dam, the city likely will have to drain the lake almost entirely, leaving only enough water to keep fish alive, said Tom Woosley with the Safe Dams Program. Regardless of who pays for repairs, work on the dam should be completed by 2012, officials said.
The mayor noted that Berkeley Lake, which operates on a budget of just over $1 million, doesn’t have the funds to pick up the repair cost.
“We’d have to borrow a whole lot of money,” Salter said. “That would be huge for us.”
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