State defers dam decision

By Dan McFarland
Review Correspondent

Published: July 24, 2008

After refusing in March to extend the conditional operating certificate on Lake of the Woods main dam until September 30, the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board voted unanimously to now extend the certificate until that date, in order to allow the Division of Dam Safety time to study the proposed dam improvements.
At a day-long meeting in Glen Allen last Thursday, the board spent most of its time dealing with Erosion and Sediment Control Program matters, including specifications, inspections and enforcement actions.
At the end of the day, Division of Dam Safety Chief William Browning briefed the board on his staff’s recommendations on pending dam safety matters, including proposed extensions to the operating certificates for 42 Virginia dams.
“Lake of the Woods’ certificate is expiring,” he noted, “and we want two more months, as staff, to review the work that has been submitted so we can move that one forward.”
Without further comment or questions, the board immediately voted to grant the extensions on all of the dams.
The Commonwealth Dam Safety staff and Lake of the Woods have been meeting and communicating regularly in the last few months.
“The state has received all the engineering documents that they requested according to the deadlines set forth in our March four-month extension,” explained Lake of the Woods General Manager John Bailey.
“We have spent time with them going over their follow-up questions, and now they have a few more things that they need to review in order to perform their due diligence to make sure that everything is in proper, final order.
“DCR’s efforts,” he continued, “and any resulting follow-up on our part, will take a while longer.  Following that, they will inform us as to what their final recommendation will be to the Soil and Water Conservation Board for their September meeting.”
Following the LOW Board of Directors special July 10 meeting, several residents questioned the “secrecy” of the board’s vote to authorize the purchase of a property on Germanna Highway for $230,000.
No explanation for the purchase was given at that time.
Board president Eldon Rucker later explained the action taken.
“Because of the sensitive nature of our ongoing negotiations with the State Division of Dam Safety, we were advised by counsel not to publicly disclose specifics until we had received feedback from the state on our recent discussions,” he said.  “The property purchase issue was therefore addressed with little explanation, and I apologize for the abrupt nature of the meeting.”
“Why did we buy the property along Germanna Highway?” Bailey expanded.  “That action by the board of directors was part of an overall package to reduce our liability and to demonstrate to the State our commitment to public safety.
“If this successful effort continues, the savings we will recover will far outweigh the cost of the purchase.  This represented yet another piece of the puzzle in our overall effort to reduce the potential financial obligation of meeting the State requirements”
The Soil and Water Conservation Board is next scheduled to meet Sept 24 and 25 in Richmond, at a yet to be determined location.