The deadline to rehabilitate the “high risk” McMillan Dam at Buffalo Springs Lake is the end of this year. Otherwise, Lubbock County might need to repay the federal government roughly $7 million in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding.
Work is currently underway to widen the dam – from a 2-to-1 ratio to 3-to-1 ratio earthen dam – meaning the slope will extend three feet out for every foot of height. State regulators previously categorized McMillan as high risk (which we explain further below).
County Commissioners in late July got an update on the work from Casey Klingensmith, a board member with Lubbock County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 (WCID). WCID oversees the lake.
“As far as the project itself goes, according to contract, they’re on target to complete. They’re saying early November, so we have a nice little cushion there,” Klingensmith said.
The work included grubbing, which is the removal trees, bushes and other things that might like to grow on the downstream embankment of the dam. Crews are also trucking in dirt from another site, he said.
“Everything seems to be rolling along quite nicely,” Klingensmith said.
No time for money trouble
Questions were raised about the paperwork since the project is funded with a federal ARPA grant.
Kathy Williams, county auditor, told Klingensmith, “It’s been brought to my attention over the last couple of weeks that we are in non-compliance … as far as your subcontractors go.”
Williams mentioned a specific set of federal rules called 2 C.F.R. Part 200. She wanted assurance subcontractors were not on a federal disqualification list. Subcontractors also need a federal SAM or System for Award Management account, according to County Judge Curtis Parrish. That needs to be double-checked, he said.
Klingensmith told Williams, “We’re just going to modify, I believe, an agreement between the water district and the county to get that into compliance.”
(It was later clarified in the meeting the adjustment should be between the district and the main contractor.)
LubbockLights.com reached out to Williams and Klingensmith by email and repeatedly by phone to see if things have been ironed out yet. We have not heard back.
When LubbockLights.com reached out to Jason Corley, county commissioner, whose district the dam is in, said this is a relatively easy thing to straighten out. He anticipated work would be done and payments would be made before the federal deadline.
Parrish said the federal deadline is his biggest concern and told LubbockLights.com, “The bills need to be paid. Everything needs to be done by the end of the year.”
“If all the invoices have not been paid by the end of December, then potentially that money can be clawed back, brought back by the Treasury Department. If we’re going to take their money, you got to take their strings. That’s the bottom line to that,” Parrish said.
LubbockLights.com learned as of Thursday, work on the dam was continuing while officials continued with contract modifications to ensure federal requirements are met.
Safety issue
McMillan Dam did not meet the state’s flood criteria, according to a 2011 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) inspection.
McMillan Dam was also identified “as high risk by TCEQ,” according to a more recent Texas water plan report.
Corley wanted to clarify the safety issue, saying, “There was never any failure or anything wrong with the dam.”
“Dams at the time of its construction had a 2-to-1 safety factor. … So now what is considered the new standard is to go into 3-to-1,” Corley said.
“Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s changed. It’s just the new standard,” Corley added during the commissioners meeting.
Parrish asked if there would be a safety reassessment after the work is completed.
Klingensmith answered, “My assumption would be ‘yes,’ sir. Freese and Nichols [a Lubbock engineering firm] is definitely leading the charge on all of that. … Their engineering studies [are] quite in depth, and so they’ll want final approval that everything was done the way it was supposed to.”
The McMillan project will also address underground springs.
“You had spring water popping up underneath the dam. … There was never any leaks going through the dam of actual lake water,” Corley told fellow commissioners.
If water seeps under the dam, it can cause erosion. The fix for spring water coming up from under the dam is something called a French drain.
A French drain catches the water and gives it a safe path out – reducing the risk of dangerous erosion.
“That water will be collected and then put back into the creek,” Corley said.
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