Tom Henihan
Express Staff
While in the midst of a major project at its intake plant on the Little Smoky River, the Smoky River Regional Water Management Commission (SRRWMC) experienced a small setback to the operation due to prolonged wet weather.
“Last week’s 3 day rain didn’t only dampen the farmers situation, it did ours as well,” says SRRWMC manager Marco Gervais.
Following the three days of rain, the Little Smoky River rose significantly flooding the Alberco’s dam on Saturday, September 24.
Fortunately, the water level was rising before the Alberco crew left on Friday for the weekend so they cleaned everything out of the structure before leaving.
“The concrete that has been poured down there has had proper time to cure so there is no real damage,” says Gervais. “There is extra cost for the environmental aspect and they have been delayed about a day and a half due to dewatering and desilting the structure again.”
The dam is a key facet of the project allowing the crew to get below the water surface to work on the intake structure.
The project, which began at the beginning of August and estimated to finish around the end of September will now experience some slight but that delay will not affect the consumer.
