“Coverup, Lies and Deception“ is the title of our 3rd Article in the Lake Petit Dam (“LPD”) Series. The Big Canoe “Smoke Signal’s {sic} Screens” also released an article on LPD – but offered a dramatically different view of the facts. The appropriateness of the title chosen for our 3rd Article becomes excruciatingly clear as one begins to look closely at the information presented in the SS article.
Below is an actual quote from an archived Smoke Signals Article entitled “Town Hall meeting goes smoothly, Lack of burning issue curbs crowd,” By John Baugus; Apr 30, 2002.
“If the State approves the submitted recommendations for Lake Petit Dam improvements, the estimated costs of construction are roughly $500,000. This number does not include design costs nor does it include consulting fees, a lot of which were incurred and paid three or more years ago.”
Fast forward to the recent 2021 February Smoke Signals article entitled “February Zoom Community Coffee planned to discuss engineering studies proposed for Lake Petit Dam” By Barbara Schneider, directly referencing the previous Apr 30, 2002 article as the source for a specific quote. Following is the quote, and the reference to the previously linked article, exactly as is seen in the article, which you can find in this month’s Feb 2021 Smoke Signals:
“In 2002, the Ga. EPD approved Geosyntec’s recommendations for Lake Petit Dam—estimated to cost $500K—plus design and consulting fees mainly paid during the four years of negotiations with the state.” (“Town Hall meeting goes smoothly, Lack of burning issue curbs crowd,” By John Baugus; Apr 30, 2002.)
Compare the underlined text. Smoke Signals Editor Barbara Schneider misquoted the 2002 article, substantially changing the story from “If the State approves” to “In 2002, the Ga. EPD approved”.
These are two very different statements. The actual story from 2002 presented that something might happen, while Ms. Schneider altered that in an attempt to rewrite history, and present something that never happened, as a historical fact.
LET ME BE CLEAR: THERE IS ZERO HISTORICAL RECORD, OR DOCUMENTATION, THAT CAN BE FOUND WHICH INDICATES THAT THE GEOSYNTEC PLAN WAS EVER APPROVED, OR IMPLEMENTED.
Hopefully it is evident in the FOBC Article Series on Lake Petit Dam, that extensive research of historical records, including open records requests to the Georgia Safe Dams program have been done by this newspaper. Actual Journalism has been engaged in. Actual documents have been provided. One such example was the previously reported May 19, 2009 letter from Ga Safe Dams Director, in which he was clearly aware that NO CORRECTIONS to the stability issue had been made, nor had the Geosyntec plans been implemented, nor approved.
Also, to put this into timeline perspective, according to the recent Smoke Signals article, the EPD approved and implemented the stability plan in 2002. But a year later in an April 29, 2003 Letter from the Director of the Ga. Safe Dams Program to the Big Canoe POA stated the following:
As you are no doubt aware by now, a 4.5 magnitude earthquake occurred on April 29,2003 near the Georgia-Alabama border east of Fort Payne, Alabama. It was felt throughout Georgia………. The earthquake event was one of these unusual events that could have adversely affected your dam. You need to inspect your dam immediately, if you have not already done so, and report the results of your inspection in writing to our office by Friday, May 9, 2003.
Does this sound like a letter from someone that has just approved of, and overseen the implementation of a $500,000 earthquake stability project?
This is backed up by Board Meeting Minutes that stretch from June 2002 to May 2003 showing that there had been No Approval of the Geosyntec Plan. See documents and excerpts below:
- June 2002 Board Minutes (Pg 4)/ “The status of Lake Petit Dam was discussed. Mr. Ledbetter stated that at this time, we have had no response from the State of Georgia regarding Lake Petit Dam.”
- July 2002 Board Minutes (Pg 5)/ “The status of Lake Petit Dam was again discussed and Mr. Ledbetter reported that we have had no response from the State of Georgia regarding Lake Petit Dam.”
- August 2002 Board Minutes (Pg 4)/ “As of this date, Mr. Ledbetter reported that we have had no response from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources regarding Lake Petit Dam, nor has the State contacted GeoSyntec.”
- October 2002 Board Minutes (Pg 4)/ “Again, it was reported that there were no further updates from the State of Georgia regarding the Lake Petit Dam.”
- January 2003 Board Minutes (Pg 6)/ “Mr. Ledbetter relayed that there have been no further updates regarding Lake Petit Dam from the State of Georgia.”
- February 2003 Board Minutes (Pg 4)/ “Mr. Ledbetter reported that we have had no response from the State of Georgia regarding Lake Petit Dam.”
- May 2003 Board Minutes (Pg 3, 4)/ “Following the recent earthquake that took place near the Georgia/Alabama border, the State of Georgia required the POA to make a visual inspection of Petit Dam. Mr. Ledbetter advised the Board that he requested Cranston, Robertson, & Whitehurst to inspect the dam for any deficiencies. A copy of their reported was provided to the Board. The State of Georgia also received a copy of this report. The report noted that no deficiencies were found.”
NOTE: May 23 is the last entry on the issue, and now it just fades away. Cranston, Robertson, & Whitehurst is now engaged, and they are the Developer’s Engineer that designed and built the Dam. At this stage they had the greatest liability if things went wrong. They would have suffered immense financial and reputational damage if the Dam had been “condemned” due to failure to pass minimum seismic stability requirements. Yet with an edict of “no deficiencies found” everyone moved on and this was manipulatively used by all parties involved to pretend that the actual stability issues had been resolved. But the deficiencies referenced were regarding a routine “visual inspection” – and were NOT a reference to the Seismic Issues that the Geosyntec Engineering Plan claimed it could solve, and that was awaiting approval, and which to this day has NOT been approved, nor implemented. And from this point forward, Big Canoe has acted like they got away with it, as they usually do. They obfuscate, lie, misdirect, and stall…. until people forget and lose interest. Mother Nature hasn’t forgotten. She is still patiently wearing away at the Dam. So NO, Barbara Schneider…. there were no “approved recommendations”…. no “$500,000 projects” that stabilized the Dam.
Furthermore, every single page of documentation received from the Ga Safe Dams program in response to this Newspaper’s Open Records Request has been reviewed several times. There is NOTHING found in any records that indicates that the Geosyntec plan was ever approved, or implemented. There are no archived Smoke Signals stories that describe the actual work. There is no reference in the historical record in the Big Canoe Archives that has been found. There is no reference whatsover of actually WHAT was supposedly done during the implementation of this “stabilization plan” that erased all of the stability issues that professional engineers had repeatedly warned about.
What we do know for a fact (ref Article #3 in Series) is that the only engineering study that we do have, is the one by jordan jones & goulding in the late 90’s, which showed the seismic stability of Lake Petit Dam to be 0.70, which is well below the minimum permitted threshold of 1.1. And these are old design standards. For comparison, note that the nearby Grandview Dam, which was recently required to be rebuilt by Ga Safe Dams — was required to rebuilt at a substantially higher Seismic Rating of 5.0+ !!! Someone needs to get involved ASAP, and shed some light on what exactly the current Seismic Rating of Lake Petit Dam is NOW, especially after the March 2020 Engineering studies showed that the Phreatic line (water table) has actually risen since 1998, which is a critical component in calculating Seismic stability.
But there are multiple untruths, and severe misrepresentations, in the recent Smoke Signals article. I’m not going to go through them all, because I think that this one is the most disturbing…. that the Smoke Signals has presented falsified information to the community in a seemingly intentional effort to distract from the seriousness of the potential safety and financial threats that the Petit Lake Dam poses.
It is just more evidence that the Smoke Signals is little more than a communications mouthpiece for the POA Board & Management to spin whatever message they so choose, with callous disregard for the truth.
Just this week, on Page 3 of the February 2021 Edition of the Smoke Signals, in the Section “GM’s Corner”, Scott Auer introduced the community to “the newly merged Smoke Signals and Inside the Gates”. He goes on to say, “Pairing these two publications will save the POA some $10,000 in annual printing costs……. Seeing Smoke Signals and Inside the Gates under a single roof really exemplifies so much of what we continue to promote around Big Canoe.” Auer concludes the article by referring to the “Smoke Signals and Inside the Gates as a single, unrivaled, and way more health-conscious product”.
Those are REAL quotes by the way. I didn’t make them up and present them in my own words as something they are not, which is funny, because it actually IS hard to believe they are true. Smoke Signals Newspaper is produced and paid for by “Smoke Signals Community Inc.” Inside the Gates is produced and paid for by the POA. “Big Canoe Property Owners Association”, and “Smoke Signals Community Inc.” are separate corporations. Yet interestingly, if you looked at the list of POA Board of Directors as listed in their NonProfit 990 Tax Form (POA – Pg 7), and the Board of Directors for the Smoke Signals as listed in their NonProfit 990 Tax Form (SS – Pg 7), you see a couple of names that jump out in both places. Dudley Devore and Phil Baldwin served on both boards. Phil Baldwin, the Developer Representative, still serves on both boards. There is commingling of control, finance, and purpose it seems.
There is no question that the Smoke Signals is a beautifully designed and laid out newspaper. Great photography, and a fantastic place to read all the gossip and trivia within the community!
But as a source of unbiased and factual news….. not so much. The Smoke Signals presented false information to Big Canoe Property Owners, and to the greater regional Community, that it is supposed to serve.
Peace,
– david / publisher
Focus on Big Canoe, GA
* a publication of The Mountains Voice
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