Lake Delhi investigation won’t focus solely on faulty foodgate

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will investigate exactly how an 88-year-old dam at Lake Delhi failed last weekend. But that investigation will not focus solely on one of three floodgates that failed to fully open.

Photos after the dam breach clearly show the gate on the south side of the dam open only one third to one half the normal amount. That gate was damaged in the flood of 2008 and could not open more fully without assistance.

Within hours of the dam break last Saturday, lake residents complained that the faulty gate may have been a primary cause of the failure. Heidi Roussell, one lake resident cleaning up damage on Thursday, complained that people living around the lake didn't know about that potential problem before the flood. She said if she had known, she would have done things differently before the dam break.

“We would have done more here with getting our stuff out-you know, the boats etc. Upriver, they definitely would have done more,” Roussell said.

Some national dam experts looking at photographs of the partially-closed floodgate concluded that may have played a significant role in why water eventually overtopped the dam. The Iowa DNR will investigate what went wrong. But Kevin Baskins, a department spokesperson, said the state isn't ready to focus solely on the floodgate as the key piece of evidence.

“It's definitely too early,” Baskins said “because that's just one factor and keep in mind too that gate was at least partially open and the others were open beyond their intended use.” Baskins added that in spite of pressure for quick answers a thorough investigation of the Lake Delhi dam failure will take time.

“It's more important to get the answers right than to get the answers quickly," Baskins said.

The state had given the recreation association until the end of 2009 to repair the faulty gate in question. But DNR dam inspector John Garten said the owners had trouble getting the work done because the water stayed too high to allow access to the gate for repairs. The DNR had not issued a letter of violation because dam owners were making a good faith attempt to fix the problem.

At the time the dam broke, construction equipment was in place to do repairs. In fact, a large crane was sitting on the side of county road X-31 near the dam and that crane was capable of lifting the faulty gate to a fully open position. Delaware County engineer Anthony Bardgett saw the crane that Saturday morning before the dam failed. But Bardgett said when he saw the county road over the dam begin to buckle from the high water he knew it could never support any heavy equipment.

“I wasn't about to say take that crane across there and try to open the gates. I wasn't going to put anyone at risk,” Bardgett said.

Lake Delhi Recreation Association President Jim Willey said the crane sitting near the dam belong to the contractor and the keys to operate that piece of equipment were in Wisconsin at the time.