Город Силва планирует демонтировать аварийную плотину ради расширения пожарного полигона

'Liability to the town': Sylva looks to decommission non-operational, aging dam SYLVA, N.C. (WLOS) — The Town of Sylva is looking to decommission an aging, non-operational dam after a notice of deficiency from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) in the fall of 2025. The 29-foot earthen embankment, which can hold nearly 8 million gallons of water when filled, was opened in the 1970s, but after a new dam in Cullowhee was built, the Sylva dam became non-operational. "When the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority formed in the early ‘90s, they had their intake on that side, so that pretty much rendered this dam [Sylva dam] and impoundment obsolete," said Jake Scott, Sylva’s public works director. CITY COUNCIL APPROVES CONTRACT TO REBUILD NORTH FORK DAM FUSEGATE DAMAGED BY HELENE Nearly 30 years later, the town received a notice of deficiency from NCDEQ, finding issues with the dam. "They wanted the vegetation on the front side of the dam to be removed; they wanted this intake tower that you can see here behind me to be repaired; and they wanted repairs made to the overflow spillway at the far end over there that you can see that there's a tree growing out of," said Jake Scott, Town of Sylva Public Works Director. NCDEQ is offering the town four solutions, including repairing the dam, which is something Scott says does not address long-term costs like updating flood modeling every 10 years and submitting emergency action plans every year. "It would be in the area of $260-something thousand to make those repairs," Scott said. Of the four options presented to the town, the main one the town looks to do is to decommission the dam, which is estimated to cost $450,000 to $500,000. Scott says decommissioning the dam would be the best option for the town in the long run. "It really isn't able to be used for what it was designed for at all. It's only a liability to the town," Scott said. The town board advised the public works office to pursue decommissioning the dam. The third option involved helping to maintain water capacity for the fire department, which uses the site for training. ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS PUSH FOR REMOVAL OF CRAGGY DAM AS DEBATE OVER AGING STRUCTURE BEGINS “The third option was kind of split in two separate ways because we do need to maintain some water capacity for the fire department. Was maybe making a smaller earthen impoundment," Scott said. "You know, 20-to-30 thousand gallons so that the fire department could do their training and their pump testing, but the DEQ is unable to tell us that that would get us off the high risk list." The high-risk list means the dam is considered high hazard, which, according to NCDEQ, means it is located where failure will likely cause loss of life or serious damage to homes, industrial and commercial buildings, important public utilities, primary highways, or major railroads. The fourth and final option included something similar with an external water tank. "If we're gonna spend the amount of money that we're gonna need to spend, we want to make sure we're off that high hazard assessment from the DEQ," Scott said. As previously mentioned, the town board advised the Sylva Public Works office to move forward with decommissioning the dam, which officials say would provide more space to expand training facilities used by the Sylva Fire Department. "The plan, as far as my understanding is, they're gonna take the dam out and replace it with a tank, and we'll still be able to operate it," said Michael Beck, Sylva Fire Department Chief. Beck says in the past there has been work to help improve the site, starting with one tower adding concrete to the site so it's not muddy while the firefighters are training. "We've done a lot of work on it, and it's a nice place to have. We're out of traffic, and all that, and it helps us with our rating, helps us train our new firemen when we get them," Beck said. Scott says the site could also be used for storage by the Public Works office. MARION LANDS $2.7M DEQ GRANT TO BREACH LADY MARION DAM AND REBUILD DRAINAGE SYSTEM "Ideally, we'll expand the training facilities and use it for public works storage; we've got quite a bit of, when it's off-season, we store bucket trucks and things of that nature up here, so we can expand the storage and improve the fence," Scott said. The decision on what to do with the site is ultimately left up to the town board. While the town works to decommission the dam, it's still seeking funding through grants with either NCDEQ or dam-removal groups.