NEWFANE — Morris Root from Root Engineering advises immediate maintenance on Grout Pond Dam, the stones of the sluiceway of which he says have settled due to internal erosion.
“There is a significant amount of water exiting at the toe of the dam. It is presumed that the source of this water is the cracks in the sluiceway,” Root said in correspondence to Steve Bushman, the town's dam safety inspector, which was read into the record of the Sept. 19 Selectboard meeting.
“It is apparent that a portion of the downstream stone wall is unstable, and there is some judgement about the amount of trees growing on the embankment affecting subsurface conditions within the dam,” Root wrote.
Root provided a project proposal that board vice chair Steve Lawley estimated at some $3,200.
That proposal addresses immediate and long-term issues with the dam, and would divert the water from the sluiceway with sandbags; maintain conservation flow over the dam to the downstream brook; place a fiber-reinforced concrete slab to fill the void in the sluiceway invert; and work to prevent other leakage.
Lawley noted that the deadline for working in the waterway falls in October. The permitting process will take some time as well, he said, but by naming this an emergency perhaps that could be expedited.
“Something needs to be done, or by spring, we're gonna have a whole lot bigger issue here,” he said.