Lake of the Woods may not have to build a second spillway on the dam of its main lake after all.
That's the chatter around the Orange County subdivision after the news got out that state Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, had introduced legislation Tuesday that would negate the state's dam-safety regulations.
Senate Bill 276 says, in effect, that dams that don't comply with dam-safety regulations can continue to operate if the owner of the dam has adopted an emergency-action plan--as LOW has.
The legislation would require the state's Soil and Water Conservation Board to issue regular operation and maintenance certificates to dam owners until money is made available by the state through the Dam Safety, Flood Prevention and Protection Assistance Fund to pay for dam improvements.
Once the state made that funding available, dam owners would have to comply with all the dam safety regulations.
The fund, established in 2006 to make grants and loans to dam owners, has a balance of $1.3 million at this time and additional funding is not expected. The fund paid (through the Virginia Resource Authority) $500,000 to LOW last year, half of the $1 million granted to LOW last January to get the homeowners association to agree to build the second spillway on its main lake.
"The dam-safety regulations are flawed because they're based on a theoretical model that was pushed through at the same time the sky was falling on state revenues," Houck said yesterday.
"If the intent is to protect life and property, we need to make sure the emergency-action plans are as rich as they can be. That's better than forcing a theoretical rainfall model down dam-owners' throats."
The LOW dam is considered high hazard because its failure would probably cause loss of life and severe property damage. Numerous homes and businesses are located in the dam's inundation zone.
Because of the high-hazard designation, the spillway must be able to discharge the water that results from a probable maximum flood--37 inches of rain in 24 hours. The existing spillway can discharge two-thirds of the PMF.
Last January, LOW agreed to build the spillway after eight years of fighting with the state over compliance with the dam-safety regulations. In October, the LOW board levied a $1,200 special assessment on the owners of each of LOW's 4,257 lots to pay for the work.
But the political landscape has changed.
New Gov. Bob McDonnell has appointed a new secretary of natural resources. He will oversee the Department of Conservation and Recreation, whose director has resigned. The director of the Division of Dam Safety is retiring.
"We had been trying to work in a cooperative way with the previous administration," said Houck, "but it didn't happen. We hope the McDonnell administration will go back and review the regulations. They definitely need to be changed."
Lake of the Woods President Bruce Kay hesitated to make predictions.
"I'm assessing the situation and will present information to the Board of Directors in a closed meeting next Tuesday," he said. "We need to review the legalities and consequences facing us after receiving the state grant and collecting the special assessment from LOW members to pay for the dam work.
"We'll look at different scenarios that will have multiple consequences," he added. "If we stop work on the dam, we could spend twice as much because of the delay. We have a pretty good shot at turning this whole thing around, but it depends on how the Soil and Water Conservation Board acts."
Kay and other LOW members will hear from the SWCB at its meeting in Richmond today when it responds to Kay's request in November that it accept LOW's enhanced safety measures in lieu of the spillway project now underway.
LOW signed a $4.8 million contract in October and the preliminary work on the new spillway started at that time. Substantial completion is required by Nov. 1, but is expected by late summer.
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net