Lake Elmdale repair on track

Sept. 9, 2020

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

ROGERS — The repair to Lake Elmdale’s spillway is going as smooth as can be expected, in spite of temporary setbacks caused by COVID-19 and recent rains from Hurricane Laura that soaked much of Arkansas last week.

“The contractor has completed clearing and grubbing to access the area, has done about 90 percent of the earthwork and has begun placing riprap with filter fabric in the spillway drainage to slow erosion,” said Mike Cantrell, facility and operations manager at the AGFC’s Calico Rock Office. “With the exception of some rainfall presenting short delays, the project is progressing as scheduled.”

The repair was authorized by Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioners during the Commission’s April meeting, with $1 million budgeted for the work, half of which will be reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since the initial damage was the result of significant flooding in 2018.

Kevin Mullen, chief of the AGFC’s Operations Division, said the damage is not to the lake’s dam, but to the spillway area downstream that began washing away as a result of the flooding. Subsequent floods have worsened the initial damage, prompting quick action on the part of the Commission.

‘“We wanted to get in front of this before it becomes something worse,” Mullen said. “So we needed to place a high priority on this project.”

In damage from the flooding has enabled flow from the lake to continue scouring away at the runout. With increased residential housing and construction near the lake, that flow has seen an increase since the lake’s construction in 1953.

“There is no real ground saturation from rainfall,” Mullen noted. “All of it goes straight into the lake. There is nothing you can do about that. That’s just one of those things that came with changes and growth and private development.”