The Dam Assessment has passed. Please check back for updates.
Below is the estimated amount of 4 million dollars amortized for 2,110 property owners at 6.5% interest rate for 12 years with an 84% interest rate. There are factors which will changed the actual annual loan details. This is the associations credit rating, time the loan is acquired, etc.
WILD ACRES LAKES PROPERTY &HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION DAMS
In your 2010 ballot was a brief synopsis of our dams and the Association informing you that the dams are in need of repairs and maintenance as mandated by D.E.P. Without the vote in favor of the special assessment D.E.P. will in fact mandate the lowering and or breeching of some of our lakes/dams. Below is information and some facts as it relates to our dams to better educate you on the importance of your vote in favor of the twelve (12) year special assessment.
Many of you may not realize the importance of our lakes. With the lakes come our dams. The lakes provide prime recreational enjoyment for our members including boating and fishing. Dams help to protect the loss of life and property by flooding. Dams have been built to prevent and help control devastating floods. There are more than 80,000 dams in the United States, according to the 2007 update to the National Inventory of Dams. Approximately one third of these pose a "high" or "significant" hazard to life and property if failure occurs. Wild Acres has five (5) dams that are categorized by the Department of Environmental Protection Dam Safety Division as being high hazard.
Dam failure or levee breeches can occur with little warning. Intense storms may produce a flood in a few hours or even minutes for upstream locations. Flash floods occur within six (6) hours of the beginning of heavy rainfall, and dam failure may occur within hours of the first signs of breaching. Other failures and breeches can take much longer to occur, from days to weeks, as a result of debris jams or the accumulation of melting snow.
Additionally, Wild Acres Lakes does not have operational fire hydrants. Fire hydrants are necessary to provide the local fire department with water to put out a structure or brush fire. With the absence of fire hydrants they use some of our lakes as a primary water source in such emergencies. There are, what appears to be, fire hydrants throughout the community, however, these "fire hydrants" are release valves for the public water company and not available for the fire department to use as a water supply. In our lakes there are “dry hydrants” which the fire department has the ability to hook their hoses to and take water from the lakes to the on-site fire.
Without the repairs being done to the dams as per D.E.P.'s requirements we will be forced to lower and or breech our dams. With that said, we will be at a disadvantage for many reasons. Wild Acres Lakes will no longer be a premier community with seven (7) lakes. The community will loose some if not all of our lake recreation experiences. With this the property values on a whole will be significantly reduced. Currently, our lakes draw in many prospective purchasers’ which makes resale optimum.
Wild Acres Lake Dam is the largest lake that WALPOA owns. The dam is classified as a C-1 dam. The dam is earth-rock filled with a concrete core wall. The dam has a maximum storage capacity of 276 acre-ft and a drainage area of 1.9 square miles. The dam is 9 feet high. The dam is classified as a high hazard dam due to the high probable loss of life and property damage that would occur should the dam breach. From the draft emergency action plan, there are 35 commercial, residential and recreational structures and approximately 60 year round residents within the inundation area of the dam.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineer’s Phase I report, the dam was constructed in 1928 and was formerly known as Kiel Lake Dam. This dam was built on the site of an old timber dam known as Sanderson Dam built around 1904. The Kiel Lake Dam was renamed Wild Acres Lake Dam in 1967 after Marcon, Inc. acquired the dam.
According to PA DEP Dam Safety WALPOA has a permit to operate and maintain the dam.
North Lake Dam is the second largest lake that WALPOA owns. This dam flows into Wild Acres Lake. The dam is earth embankment. The dam has a maximum storage capacity of 112 acre-ft and a drainage area of 0.5 square miles. The dam is 18 feet high. The dam is classified as a high hazard dam due to the high probable loss of life and property damage that would occur should the dam breach. From the draft emergency action plan, there are 4 residential structures and approximately 16 residents within the inundation area of the dam.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineer’s Phase I report, the dam was constructed in 1972.
According to PA DEP Dam Safety WALPOA does not have a permit to operate and maintain the dam. Therefore, PA DEP is requiring a dam permit application be prepared and submitted.
South Pond Dam is an earth embankment dam. This dam flows into Wild Acres Lake. The dam has a maximum storage capacity of 39 acre-ft and a drainage area of 0.45 square miles. The dam is 13 feet high. The dam is classified as a high hazard dam due to the high probable loss of life and property damage that would occur should the dam breach. From the draft emergency action plan, there are 3 residential structures and a swimming pool bathhouse and approximately 12 residents within the inundation area of the dam.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineer’s Phase I report, the dam was constructed between 1954 and 1972.
According to PA DEP Dam Safety WALPOA does not have a permit to operate and maintain the dam. Therefore, PA DEP is requiring a dam permit application be prepared and submitted.
Fawn Lake Dam is an earth embankment dam. This dam is on a tributary of the Hornbecks Creek and flows into the Hornbecks Creek, which is the same creek that Wild Acres Lake flows into. The dam has a maximum storage capacity of 68 acre-ft and a drainage area of 1.6 square miles. The dam is 22 feet high. The dam is classified as a high hazard dam due to the high probable loss of life and property damage that would occur should the dam breach. From the draft emergency action plan, there are 35 commercial, residential and recreational structures and approximately 60 year round residents within the inundation area of the dam.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineer’s Phase I report, the dam was constructed between 1966 and 1973.
According to PA DEP Dam Safety WALPOA does not have a permit to operate and maintain the dam. Therefore, PA DEP is requiring a dam permit application be prepared and submitted.
Long Ridge Dam is an earth embankment dam. This dam is on a tributary of the Hornbecks Creek and flows eventually into Fawn Lake. The dam has a maximum storage capacity of 53 acre-ft and a drainage area of 0.11 square miles. The dam is 10 feet high. The dam is classified as a high hazard dam due to the high probable loss of life and property damage that would occur should the dam breach. From the draft emergency action plan, there are 52 commercial, residential and recreational structures and approximately 130 year round residents within the inundation area of the dam.
According to PA DEP Dam Safety WALPOA does not have a permit to operate and maintain the dam. Therefore, PA DEP is requiring a dam permit application be prepared and submitted. However, WALPOA had its engineer perform an analysis and determined that the dam crest could be lowered to make it a DEP non-regulated dam.
The following are the non-regulated dams:
Sand Springs Dam Upper Fawn Lake Dam
The total to upgrade the spillways, provide overtopping protection, to make repairs to outlet structures and other repairs to the high hazard dams and this is all estimated at approximately $4,500,000 to $5,000,000. Attached, please find a brief estimated cost including collection rate, properties, interest rate and term to finance the dam projects.
****Project Update**** Updated as more information becomes available.....
Wild Acres consists of seven lakes which are; Wild Acres Lake, North Lake, Long Ridge, Sand Spring, South Pond, Fawn Lake and Little Fawn Lake. Our lakes are classified by the DEP. Fawn Lake, North Lake, South Pond Wild Acres and Long Ridge Lake are high hazard lakes. The definition of high hazard is if a dam has the potential for loss of life or loss of habitable structures or could create more than a minimal economic loss. Sand Spring and Little Fawn Lake are non hazard, which means little to no potential for loss of life or structures.
Each year the Association is required to do a dam inspection report and submit it to the DEP for their review. After the inspection, our in house maintenance staff completes as much of the work as possible, such as cutting grass or cleaning the spillways to keep the cost to a minimum for the Association.
In September 2004, winds from Hurricane Ivan hit the Fawn Lake spillway causing a large hole requiring emergency repair. The Association engineer prepared a design for repair work that needed to be done and it was approved by the DEP and the repairs were complete.
During the DEP review, it was discovered that Wild Acres Association did not have several of their dams permitted, along with several other concerns that needed to be addressed that the Association was unaware of. Several of the high hazard dam spillways designs does not meet the hundred year flood compliance, underwater inspection of the valves and devices, along with emergency action plans need to be done.
In August 2005, the Board of Directors contracted RKR Hess Associates to perform a dam assessment and report to determine the extent of repairs needed. Global Oceanic Enterprises was awarded the bid in early 2006 to conduct underwater inspections of the devises that control our dams. After review of the report, it was determined that all of our dams are in need of repairs ranging from valve replacement to the three dams that are in need of a spillway repair work.
The maintenance staff continues to do work in house to keep the overall costs as low as possible. The Board of Directors are in the process of reviewing all the final reports provided to them and are looking at all options.After their review, we will be meeting with the DEP to discuss our options.
On Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Wild Acres Director of Operations, members of the Board of Directors and RKR Hess (associations engineer) met with D.E.P. as it relates to dam updates and we are awaiting finalization to move forward.
The Association had gone out to bid on increasing the water capacity at the Long Ridge Dam spillway and the results of that bid will announced upon board approval/vote.
A workshop was held on Saturday, March 27th at 2pm @ the Clubhouse relating to the dams. This workshop was informative and was attended by an engineer. The primary purpose of the meeting was to review/work on the 12 year schedule for D.E.P. Additionally to discuss the Long Ridge Dam.
Now comes a time that the association, per the bylaws, needs your vote. We have filed for the skeleton permits with D.E.P. and need your acceptance to a special assessment so we may send the schedule to D.E.P. for their approval and continue to keep Wild Acres a great place to live!!!
