Levee plugs holding

By MEGAN DOYLE
H&N Staff Writer

June 5, 2008

Experts watched the water filtering through the levee near Moore Park turn from clear to murky Wednesday, signaling that a levee breach is more likely.

Crews used diatomaceous earth and bentonite Tuesday evening to plug four holes that have been discovered since Memorial Day weekend in the levee near Moore Park off Lakeshore Drive .

The leaks were plugged Tuesday night, but it is believed winds late Tuesday and early Wednesday caused waves to move the freshly placed material.

About three dozen truckloads of 2-inch and smaller rock were laid Wednesday near the leaks, which are within 40 feet of each other along the nearly mile-long levee owned and maintained by the Lakeshore Gardens Drainage District. The district serves about 70 people. If the levee were breached, a dozen structures on the lake side of Lakeshore Drive could be damaged.

As of Wednesday evening, the holes were mostly plugged from the lake side, but at least one was still leaking about 30 percent of what it had been before it was plugged, Jim Mueller, JCM Inc. president.

“We were feeling real good last night,” said Bill Thompson, Klamath County Emergency Services manager.

A group of experts met Wednesday afternoon to discuss temporary ways to prevent the levee from giving way. As of Wednesday evening, representatives from the Oregon Water Resources Department, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, local engineers and homeowners were continuing to analyze the leaks. They will continue to do so today.

Ideas suggested included building a sandbag well on the land side of the levee, which feeds into a drainage ditch, to help equalize the level of water from Upper Klamath Lake with what is leaking through the holes.

Complicating the solution is a repair the Lakeshore Gardens Drainage District made about a year ago in an effort to reinforce the levee. The district dug a 12-foot ditch along a stretch of the levee and backfilled it with drainage rock and clay, said Barry Norris, Oregon Water Resources Department engineer.

“That may be aggravating part of the problem,” said Mike Dillabough, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via phone from San Francisco . “It makes it more complex.”

Another proposed solution included pounding a sheet of metal perpendicularly into the levee to block water, as if it were a curtain, Norris said. Mueller believes the Bureau of Reclamation may have some materials available in storage in Klamath Falls from a project about four years ago.

There are some questions on how stable the levee is for the equipment — an excavator with a hammer — needed to drive the sheets of metal.

The project would be expensive.

“I’m looking for some money for that,” said Allen Irvine, of the Lakeshore Gardens Drainage District. “It’s going to have to be paid sometime.”

Klamath County Commissioners committed $20,000 from the county risk management fund to help with repairs. Thompson also is hoping for state funds and help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who need proof that local and state resources have been used before they give money for the project.

“We can supplement state and local efforts,” Dillabough said. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Source:  http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2008/06/05/featured_story/

doc48478bd2bdcba104955515.txt