Caryonah repairs get final permits

By Jim Young / jimyoungreporter@gmail.com

After weeks of delays and additional cost, the city of Crossville has finally received all the necessary permits to move forward with repairs on the Caryonah dam.

City engineer Tom Wolf told the Chronicle December 15 the city received the last permit needed in the mail on the afternoon of December 14. That information was not received until after press time for the issue of the Chronicle last week that reported the city was still frustrated about not having the permit to allow them to move forward on the project.

The permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation water pollution control branch would allow the city to repair and restore the damaged Caryonah dam as it was before the leak started.

City Manager Ted Meadows said the city's frustration stemmed from time delays that did not allow the city to move forward more rapidly with the necessary repairs.

Meeting in special session Nov. 22, the council had approved the low bid to repair the dam but, based on the recommendation of the consulting engineer, held off issuing a “notice to proceed” without all the necessary permits in place. The concern was that the city would begin taking the dam down then not be allowed to restore it.

Meadows added, “Not only did we not receive a permit from Water Pollution Control in a timely basis, our contact in the Cookeville office was very slow to communicate with our engineering staff. In the mean time, the Plateau received a significant rain event on the night of Dec. 8, causing Caryonah to refill almost to the pre-leak levels. The city once again was forced to rent high volume pumps to get the water level down to a safe level.

"It is believed by the city of Crossville that if the appropriate agencies had acted with the same sense of concern for safety, not only for the environment but also for downstream residents, that was expressed when the leak was initially discovered, then the repair and refurbishment of this dam could already have been completed, or at least significantly implemented, avoiding both the potential for further danger and the significant expenditures of monies to maintain the reduced depth of the lake during the advent of the rainy season.”

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

City Engineer Tom Wolf pointed out at the council's regular November meeting any mitigation by the city to the damage caused by sediment from the leak was 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 J.H. Graham III during the discussion at the November meeting.

The Caryonah dam was built in 1974 and had a discharge pipe that was built into the dam. The pipe was later plugged in 1985. A serious problem was noticed in early August when water began coming around or through the plugged pipe. After a short period of time, part of the dam began slumping and state agencies along with the Cumberland County emergency services were alerted due to possible safety concerns.

When the Catoosa Utility District merged with the Crossville water department in 2004, one thing they inherited was responsibility for the Caryonah Dam that Catoosa had considered for a possible water source. Catoosa, then utility district, had previously agreed to take over the responsibility for the dam and planned to raise it and build a water treatment plant to supply water to Catoosa.

Monday, Meadows informed the council the contractor had been given a notice to proceed on the project and would assume the liability for pumping water out of the lake beginning Jan. 15. To date, Meadows said about $196,000 had been spent on the Caryonah Dam project, with about $90,000 paid in engineering fees, a one-time cost, and much of the remainder spent renting high volume pumps to keep the water level low.

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