TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The Tallahassee Region Environmental Group (TREG) is warning that a dam in Tallahassee\u2019s Canopy Neighborhood remains at risk of flooding, and that one of the possible causes from the Miccosukee Greenway flooding of 2024 hasn\u2019t been fixed. <\/p>\n
According to the National Inventory of Dams, the Dove Pond Dam remains a \u201chigh-hazard potential dam.\u201d That means \u201cthose where failure or mis-operation will probably cause loss of human life.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Terry Ryan, the president of TREG, a report prepared by Leon County shows the dam either failed in 2024 because of valve failures or \u201cseepage\u201d through the dam. That report, however, notes that \u201cstep one\u201d would be to check the valves to see if they malfunctioned, or, in Ryan\u2019s view, were potentially left open on accident.<\/p>\n
According to that report, \u201c(the flooding was) likely caused by seepage through the Dove Pond Dam and\/or by clogging of the natural percolation in the Greenway Wetland due to siltation in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
As recently as January of 2026, private dam inspectors from Florida Environmental Land Services Inc said \u201cOpening of 24-inch gate valve annually under supervision of (an) engineer,\u201d was \u201ccurrently due.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a spokesperson for the City of Tallahassee, it\u2019s actually the North Florida Water Management District that regulates the dam. We\u2019ve reached out to regulators, but haven\u2019t yet heard back.<\/p>\n
Ryan said Leon County commissioned the report, which is saved as a \u201cfinal report\u201d but also a \u201cdraft\u201d in places, because they manage the Miccosukee Greenway and wanted to learn the cause of the 2024 flooding, even though the county doesn\u2019t directly regulate the structure.<\/p>\n
He also wonders if the owners of the dam could be open to any liability if another flood occurs and they know of even a potential problem with the dam but don\u2019t fix it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flooding we saw was immediately on April 11th (2024) and thereafter for at least another year,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIt went all across the Miccosukee Greenway, probably three feet (or) four feet over the trail system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspection reports Ryan said he obtained via an open records request show the dam itself and surrounding vegetation has consistently been inspected since the flooding, though private inspectors make no mention of inspecting the valves.<\/p>\n
More Tallahassee news: <\/p>\n
Who owns the Dove Pond Dam?<\/p>\n
The dam sits amid a jurisdictional quagmire. \u201cNo trespassing\u201d signs placed by the City of Tallahassee show the owner is \u201cDove Pond LLC.\u201d In practice, Ryan said the dam is owned either by the Canopy Community Development District or the developer of the Ox Bottom neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Steve Drurie, the assistant secretary to the CDD board, said the board actually doesn\u2019t own the dam yet but will in a year or two. In effect, the CDD acts as a supersized HOA where residents gain seats on the board as more homes are built while the developer, Premier Fine Homes, loses seats.<\/p>\n
Ox Bottom Title Manager Jason Ghazvini, who is also the president of Premier Fine Homes, hasn\u2019t responded to our request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he told us the dam and stormwater pond had held up, and that if it hadn\u2019t, flooding would\u2019ve been worse. Ryan said that just isn\u2019t accurate, as the water didn\u2019t overtop the dam or even leak onto the spillway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facility held back substantial volumes that would have otherwise resulted in a drastically different flooding experience for our community,\u201d Ghazvini wrote in a statement in 2024.<\/p>\n
Back then, Kelly Godsey with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee said it\u2019s unclear if the nearby development impacted flooding at the greenway.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course any time you do have development it does change the way water runs off a little bit, but we don\u2019t want to lose sight of the fact that this was an exceptionally heavy rainfall event,\u201d Godsey said at the time.<\/p>\n
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