Chairman looks to renegotiate maintenance agreement
An interactive map shows 10 percent of Georgia’s high-hazard dams in poor condition are located in Gilmer County.
“Georgia led the nation with nearly 200 high-hazard dams in unsatisfactory or poor condition, according to the AP’s analysis,” read an Associated Press story by David A. Lieb, Michael Casey and Michelle Minkoff published
Nov. 11, 2019.
Twenty of these are located in the Apple Capital of the state.
All 20 are flood-control dams which prevent serious flooding in the county and downtown Elijay, said Gilmer County Chairman Charlie Paris.
“And they just sit there and quietly do their jobs,” he said. “Easy to forget and easy to ignore.”
Paris brought up the dams at last month’s meeting of the board of commissioners because the maintenance agreement between Gilmer County and Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission, the Limestone Valley Soil and Water District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture is coming to an end after 20 years.
Under the agreement, Gilmer County is responsible for maintenance. To Paris this means the county is responsible for keeping them landscaped.
“We’re currently renegotiating for a renewal of it,” he said. “Our role is maintenance in terms of keeping them mowed and keeping the trees off of them.”
Once a year the county sends crews out to clear vegetation off the dams. He said it should probably be done twice a year, but the county does not have the manpower to double up on the maintenance. It takes about six weeks.
Before Paris asks the board to renew the agreement, he wants to make sure they are not responsible for repairing and refitting the dams, which could be expensive. He wants language limiting the county’s financial exposure. He doesn’t want maintenance to be broadly interpreted.
“The association estimates it would take more than $70 billion to repair and modernize the nation’s more than 90,000 dams. But unlike much other infrastructure, most U.S. dams are privately owned. That makes it difficult for regulators to require improvements from operators who are unable or unwilling to pay the steep costs,” read the Associated Press story.
All 20 of the dams in Gilmer County are on private property and privately owned, but the agreement provides for various entities, including the state, to maintain the dams.
Paris said the dams are aging and are going to require some serious repairs.
“That’s pretty expensive,” Paris said.
Though, he said, he has been told the dams were built to last.
“A review of federal data and reports obtained under state open records laws identified 1,688 high-hazard dams rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition as of last year in 44 states and Puerto Rico,” read the Associated Press story.
According to the Associated Press map, all 20 dams in Gilmer County have not been inspected in over a year.
Paris disputes this, and said the county has been told there is a yearly inspection by the feds.
“The idea is that over the course of the year, all 20 get inspected,” he said.