LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District has scheduled two drop-in public workshops in Jacksonport and Mountain Home, Arkansas to discuss the Beaver Dam Interim Risk Reduction Measures. The workshops will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. They will be held on Jan. 31 at the Jacksonport State Park Visitor Center, 111 Avenue Street, Newport, Arkansas, and Feb. 1 at the Arkansas State University Mountain Home, Vada Sheid Community Development Center, 1600 S. College Street, Mountain Home, Arkansas. Those wishing to attend can drop-in any time during the meeting to speak with USACE representatives and discuss any issues they may have about the interim risk reduction measures.
USACE implemented the additional interim risk reduction measure for Beaver Dam on Jan. 1.
The new measures will allow engineers to lower the water levels behind Beaver Dam more efficiently following significant rainfall events. Additionally, if conditions allow, the measures will also reduce the amount of time engineers have to maintain the 12-foot regulating stage at Newport, Arkansas on the White River by holding higher stages in the winter and spring. These changes are required because of non-breach dam safety issues at Beaver Dam.
USACE officials want the public to know that the dam is not at risk of imminent catastrophic failure. However, the identified dam safety issues combined with the last
decade’s above average precipitation has regularly increased the amount of time Beaver Lake stays in flood pool, which increases the risks to the population living downstream of Beaver Dam.
These increased risks were identified during routine periodic inspections and risk assessments of Beaver Dam. Engineers want to ensure any increase risks to the downstream population are minimized.
The interim risk reduction measures are a series of actions put in place to reduce the risk of a catastrophic event below Beaver Dam. The risk reduction measures are considered interim because they may or may not be part of the long-term solution once the risks are further analyzed and more potential solutions are evaluated.
Beaver Lake is part of a system of lakes on the White River. Engineers started implementing interim risk reduction measures immediately following the 2016 periodic inspection and risk assessment. One of the first measures put in place was the doubling of the minimum flow releases for power generation. This measure allows engineers to lower the lake levels faster and get from flood pool to conservation pool.
When the lake has storage in the flood pool, this measure allows engineers to double the minimum flow release from 950 cubic feet per second to 1,900 c.f.s in most circumstances, except when certain high flood conditions exist downstream (when Table Rock is above its pool elevation of 917 feet and/or the system storage of Beaver, Table Rock and Bull Shoals is above 50% full).
By implementing these new interim risk reduction measures, Beaver Lake is expected to spend more time near the top of the conservation pool instead of the top of the flood pool, greatly reducing risk to the population downstream.
More information about the Beaver Lak Dam IRRM can be found on the Internet at www.beaverlakedam-irrm.com/.
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