What the heck happened to Lake Jeff???! Here’s what you need to know:
Due to the state of disrepair of the dam, the owners of the dam have been ordered to release water and draw down the lake. When the Briscoe Dam upstream of us breached years ago, it sent a huge amount of silt and sediment into Lake Jeff which you are seeing now that the water level is low. But water flow from all of the hills around Lake Jeff also carries sediment and so over the years, the depth of the lake has decreased significantly.
Additionally, you need to know that the owners of the dam have worked for many years and spent thousands of dollars to keep the dam repaired and in compliance. But the repairs that need to be made today are now in excess of $1 million dollars, probably much closer to $2 million according to estimates done by local engineers. This price tag is far too much for the owners to afford and for our non-profit organization to raise in time to be in compliance with government standards. So the owners have no choice but to accept the government's offer to remove the dam, at taxpayer expense. And this agreement states that once this dam is removed, another dam cannot be erected in its place.
It would be sad to lose our lake, yes. But we have learned from our engineers’ reports that the dam is an essential part of flood control for the homes and businesses downstream of the dam. So we, as an organization, are equally if not more concerned about future flooding to Jeffersonville and Kohlertown if the dam were to be removed. We are now turning our attention and efforts to lobbying the state and/or federal government to pay for the repair of the dam and take over its ownership.
The cost of a new dam is $2 million. But damages to our town by previous floods exceed that. So it makes plenty of sense to invest in prevention by repairing the dam and keeping it in place to help with water control. Climate Change is a very real thing as we’ve all seen this summer with the deadly floods in Kentucky. And future storms promise to be worse than before. This is the moment to take action.
The special election for our district is on August 23rd. Once we have a representative, we will ask them to help us receive the funds needed.
If you want to help, here are a few things we could use:
Someone with $2 million to spare
Someone in state government to find us $2 million
A lobbyist to convince our state government that it makes sense to spend $2 million of the new Climate Change bill to repair the dam and save our town from roughly the same amount in flood damages.
Thousands of signatures of support.
People to share and spread the word.
Thank you for any help you might be able to provide. If you’d like to get in touch, please e-mail us at info@lakejeff.org
Best,
Lauren Seikaly