Due to the high water flows, the lake filled in less than 2 days! 

When I did the calculation on Saturday, the estimate was 40 hours.

I didn’t believe my own calculation, so I said less than a week.

It was less than a week! 

Enjoy the water.

 

Jim Beale

 

North American Hydro will start to refill Lake Arbutus at noon today (Saturday October 31st). 

Based on the current incoming flows, the lake should be full in less than a week. 

Your Board of Directors

 

Highway K project

The county will go forward with a project next year to improve the seven-mile stretch of Highway K between Highway 54 and Hatfield.

Last week, the board committed $230,000 toward the project that will resurface the road in addition to straightening two accident-prone curves.

The project — which likely would have been considered in five years — was sped up due to $1.5 million the Ho-Chunk Nation offered in supplemental funding.

“It’s an excellent opportunity,” said Supervisor Jeff Amo.

Eberhardt said there may be other county roads that are in worse condition than Highway K, but he said it made sense to move ahead with the project with the availability of funding. Jackson County Highway Commissioner Randy Anderson said the Highway K project will not push back other projects.

The project hopes to make the entire stretch of Highway K 55 mph; two corners reduce speed to 25 and 35 mph. Anderson said land will have to be acquired from the U.S. Forest Service to straighten the curves.

The money the Ho-Chunk is funding will be received through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The top seal of the gate in the gate house has been repaired and the repair work of the cement wall is complete.

 

NAH is in the process of enhancing the seals on the nine new gates to reduce the leakage of these gates.

 

The rate of fill will be determined based on the flow into the lake.

The DNR will determine when the filling must stop, due to weather conditions.

 

We will send out another email as soon as NAH starts the refilling process.

 

Your Board of Directors

 

Written By Jim Beale

 

North American Hydro has received permission to drawdown Lake Arbutus.     

 Approval letter click here.  Other correspondence

Starting Monday September 21st the water level will be lowered six inches per day for ten days. NAH has been granted a three week period to complete the repairs.

 

The DNR will determine when and at what rate the lake will be refilled.

 

Please tell you friends and neighbors of the drawdown. It is important that we all help to inform any of our neighbors that still have boats in the water.

 

As additional information becomes available, we will email updates and post any information on the web site.

 

Your Board of Directors

Lake Arbutus Association

 

 

This request has nothing to do with their discussions for an annual drawdown. They want to address three issues by the end of this year.

 

1.    Fix the seal on Gate 7 and inspect all nine gates.

2.    Determine the cause and repair the leakage along the cement wall to the right of the tainter gates.

3.    Repair to the head gate structure that controls the water into the power canal.

 

The request is to have the lake drawn down by October 1st and the repair work done by the end of 2009. They recommend keeping the lake down until next spring.

 

Addition information on Item #3. 

I reported last year that something was stuck in the head gate (this is the gate inside the red brick building) and prevented NAH for blocking off the flow into the canal.

 

NAH tried many things to free the object and finally decided to wait till spring when they could open the gate all the way and hopefully the item would pass. It did not. Several weeks ago they put in timber on the back side of the gate house, to block off the flow. This allowed them to open the gate and equalize the pressure inside the gate house, so a diver could inspect the gate and see what was blocking it. A week ago a diver found that a large piece of steel was wedged in the gate, preventing the gate from closing completely. He couldn’t move it. This Monday the diver came back with a underwater torch to cut the metal up. No one could figure out where this piece of metal came from (20 feet long by 20 inches wide).

 

Once the metal was removed, they worked on getting the gate to close properly. Once the gate was closing squarely and sealing nicely on the bottom seal, it was clear where the metal came from. This piece of metal supported the top seal of the gate to the front wall of the building. So at this time there is no top seal in place. The cement holding the steel has deteriorated and needs to be replaced. Hence, they still cannot restrict the flow into the canal to an acceptable rate. Fixing this gate is vital to controlling the lake level in low flow conditions.

 

During the last five months NAH has rebuilt the gearing mechanism and has added automatic controls to this gate, to greatly enhance the control of the flow into the canal. Without a gate that seals properly this improvement is not useable.

 

As of Tuesday NAH were evaluating options to solve the missing seal. None of the option sounded easy or inexpensive to me.

 

As I hear more information I will keep you posted. All information that we receive will also be posted on the web site.

 

Your LAA Board Directors

Written by Jim Beale