By Charles Owens
For Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Princeton — Work is expected to get underway next week on a $21 million rehabilitation project at the Brush Creek No. 15 dam in Mercer County, which is more commonly known as Dan Hale Reservoir.
State officials will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the project on April 13. The rehabilitation of the dam is expected to take several months to complete.
The Dan Hale Reservoir is classified as a “high hazard” dam, which means that failure of the dam could result in loss of human life and/or property, according to the West Virginia Conservation Agency. Dams that are approved for full rehabilitation no longer meet current state or USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service design and safety criteria and performance standards.
Sequoia Services of Greensboro, N.C., has been selected as the construction contractor for the dam rehabilitation project.
“It’s essentially shoring up the dam to make sure it can withstand a significant flooding event,” Greg Puckett, a member of the Mercer County Commission, said. “Obviously we have had a few of those and have been lucky and blessed. The dam has exceeded its 50 year life span. There are several (other dams) that need to happen. But this is a big one.”
The total cost of the project is $21,052,244, which includes more than $14.6 million in federal funding and more than $6.4 million in state and local funding with the West Virginia Legislature agreeing to fund the bulk of the state’s 35 percent funding match.
Once the dam is rehabilitated, it will be removed from the high hazard classification, according to Puckett.
If the dam were to fail, it could result in significant flooding that would impact the area all the way toward Princeton.
“Down stream you’ve got residential,” Puckett said. “You’ve got farm land. Fifty years ago that was a swamp, and it regularly flooded from Brush Creek. If the dam would happen to fail that could potentially be under water.”
Puckett said Dan Hale Reservoir also serves as a primary water source for the Green Valley area.
All recreational activity at the Dan Hale Reservoir was suspended by the county years ago.
While the county had originally talked about dredging Glenwood Lake first — which is known as the No. 14 dam — the timeline has changed with the rehabilitation project at Dan Hale Reservoir now going first, according to Puckett.
The rehabilitation project will take some time to complete.
“We are talking about months,” Puckett said. “They are going to have to set up a construction site. They are going to have to go back in and work and they are gong to have to do it quickly. Because they only have a season to do it.”
Multiple state, federal and county-level agencies have worked together on the project, including the West Virginia Conservation Agency, the USDA-NRCS, the Southern Conservation District, the Mercer County Commission and the Green Valley-Glenwood Public Service District, the West Virginia Conservation Agency said in a press release.
Read more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, here.
