On April 3, 2025 Geosyntec communicated in an email to GA Safe Dams that the following are the planned test dates for the LLO Gate Tests:
• LLO Gate Test (with the plug in place) on 4/7. (this Monday)
• Final LLO Gate Test (with the plug removed) on 4/15 (next Tuesday)
This is the latest update from the Contractor, Brennan Construction, which was working all day this Saturday (April 5, 2025). As far as FOBC knows, these dates are still in play.
It is a shame that neither the POA Board, nor G.M. Scott Auer has felt the need to update the community.
Speaking of “Engineer Scott”… in the March POA Board Meeting he appeared to accuse FOBC’s most recent article – “Big Canoe’s OLD Lake Petit Dam – New Problem!!” as spreading misinformation. He blamed the “Wetspot / Erosion” on an underground Spring. The source of his information was claimed to be a 1974 LAW Engineering Report that was done due to excessive Seepage throughout the Dam just after it’s completion. Sure enough, right at the beginning it says:
“Our initial observations of the dam indicated a spring in the right abutment approximately 100 feet from the embankment face.”
Perhaps if “Engineer Scott” knew anything about Dams, he would know that left and right on a Dam are judged by looking down from the top. The “Wet Spot – old Gravel Patch” that currently has erosion after removal of the filter blanket is located just off the Left Abutment. So that “Spring” is actually all the way across the Dam, and about 100′ into the woods (well over 100 yards away).
A simple look at Appendix D of our current Emergency Action Plan (See Pg 148 of 157) would give you the definition of how an Abutment is defined… or maybe for a visual you could look at 2 pictures of the Original Seepage pointed out in the 2022 Annual Inspection (See Pg 50 of 99) and notice that it is located in the LEFT Abutment, not the RIGHT Abutment that the “Spring” is located in.
But it really doesn’t matter.. because here in Big Canoe, FACTS DO NOT MATTER. Week after Week, after Month, after Year… our General Manager Scott Auer gets up in front of the community and says some of the stupidest, lyingest B.S. imaginable… and the Community eats it up like ice cream, demanding NO Proof, and NO Verifcation.
And then FOBC, or Blogging sites like BCMatters, spend unbelievable time, monies, research, pulling open-records etc… actually verifying facts and supplying documents…. and yet we are the ones that are the recipients of accusations of Misrepresentation, Fake News, with screeches that we provide even more proof, documents etc.
LOL… I guess what they say is true. You really can’t fix stupid.
Regardless… the LLO Test is going to happen soon, and we will see what happens. And then the Spillway Bids go out this Summer. So this IS coming to a conclusion one way or the other.
PS… FOBC has recently updated LakePetitDam.com with dozens of new documents that were retrieved via the Open Records Process. This website was created to house all the historical documents concerning non-compliance and reporting issues with the Dam. It currently holds almost 200 documents ranging from Communications, Reports, Inspections, Studies, Warning Letters, Non-Compliance Reports, Emergency Action Plans, Dam Operational Manuals, Diagrams, Surveys, Engineering Plans, etc. It paints a very clear picture of a Dam that has had seepage, stability, maintenance and non-compliance problems for the entirety of it’s 53 years. And now things are coming to a head. Keeping this Old Dam on life support, and extending it’s life for a limited number of years is getting expensive, and may not even work. I suggest a new doctor review the patient’s medical history and provide a 2nd opinion. Just saying… the files are pretty conclusive.
Remember… LLO Gate Testing on April 7th & 15th.
Peace,
– david / publisher / property owner
Focus on Big Canoe, GA
* publications of The Mountains Voice
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