By Dan McFarland
Review Correspondent

Published: March 27, 2008

After years of back-and-forth maneuvering between officials of the Lake of the Woods Association and members of the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board, both sides have agreed to a solution in the matter of the main Lake of the Woods dam.
At its meeting last Thursday in Richmond, the state board approved a four-month extension to the Lake of the Woods Conditional Operating and Maintenance Certificate for the main dam, leading to the installation next year of a gate in the existing Lake of the Woods main spillway.
The extension includes several conditions, largely proposed by Lake of the Woods officials, which include LOWA submitting, by April 7 of this year, hydrology and hydraulics study results updating old assumptions about the way a storm would affect water flow into and out of the lake. 
Also required will be the submission, by May 1, of data for an incremental damage analysis needed to reduce the spillway capacity below a full Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) event, the maximum called for under the dam safety regulation.  This capacity for the Lake of the Woods dam would equate to passing the results of 38 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. 
Under the new dam safety regulation currently being proposed by the state, this incremental damage analysis may be used, based on local conditions, to reduce this required capacity to the point where a further increase in capacity would no longer reduce possible loss of life and property damage downstream of the dam in the event of a dam failure due to overtopping.  The required capacity may thus be reduced to not less that 50 percent of the full PMF value.
Another condition calls for Lake of the Woods to submit final bid-ready design plans and specifications, an application for a dam alteration permit, and a project schedule through construction completion to the board.
Lake of the Woods asked for more time to complete that step, based on advice from its engineering firm that the required documentation could not be produced within that time frame.  The Soil and Water Conservation Board, however, insisted that this be completed in time for its next meeting.
At-large board member Susan Taylor Hansen, who moved to enact only the four-month extension on the existing certificate, rather than the six-month extension requested, commented, “That’s just a matter of overtime.  I wanted to hold them to what they originally agreed, because they made the choice to change their submission.  I think they are able to make it happen, and I’d like to see them do it. “
Lake of the Woods homeowner William Nowers addressed the board during its public comment period.  He called into question the validity of the 2001 reclassification of the Lake of the Woods dams from Class II to Class I, starting the process of requiring upgrades.
When requesting, under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, any documentation on record to justify the reclassification of the Lake of the Woods dams, he said, “I received an answer in a letter dated December 12, 2001, from the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Dam Safety stating that ‘The hazard classification was changed for both dams due to high traffic volumes on Routes 3 and 20.  A sunny day failure of either dam will probably result in loss of life.’”
At that time, he noted, dam safety regulations were concerned only with dam failure due to flooding, and the concept of a “sunny day break” was mentioned in none of them.
“I could not believe,” he said, “that anyone could use the extremely remote possibility of a sunny day break as justification for a multi-million dollar increase in the size of the spillway.”
“This sounds suspiciously like a trick,” he stated, “to force Lake of the Woods to expand their spillway by eight times its capability in the name of safety while knowing full well that expanding the size of the spillway has absolutely nothing to do with a sunny day break - the only reason I was given for changing it to a Class I dam.”
“I will not insult the intelligence of anyone here,” he noted, “by thinking you would actually believe that a sunny day break could be corrected by a bigger spillway.  A legitimate concern for a sunny day break would only involve proper monitoring of the dam for water seepage.  Lake of the Woods has been doing that for years.”
The Soil and Water Conservation Board will consider granting Lake of the Woods an 11- month alteration permit at its meeting July 17 in Charlottesville.