The Burningtown Lakes dam was constantly monitored over the weekend after an incident at the dam on Friday morning.
Burningtown Lakes resident Terry Barr said her neighbor called her early Friday morning and said, “Terry, the lake is gone.” It took her a moment to realize she was talking about their neighborhood lake. “I dropped everything and went down there.” Barr serves as treasurer of the Burningtown Lakes Homeowners Association, which owns the dam.
Emergency Management Director Warren Cabe said erosion around the spillway channel allowed the impounded water to flow around the spillway piping and discharge into a nearby creek. “There was not a complete failure of the dam and no apparent flooding occurred in the area due to the loss of water,” Cabe said in a notice issued Friday afternoon.
“We were very lucky,” Barr said. She said no one saw or heard anything, and at this point they are not sure what happened. A representative from the North Carolina Environmental Quality Dam Safety Program was on site Friday. The HOA has hired Garner Engineering, a firm based in Arden that specializes in dam engineering. Barr said an engineer was at the dam on Sunday and was scheduled to be there again Monday afternoon.
She said the engineers are working on a plan to drain the lake to prevent any further damage and to determine what types of repairs need to be made.
“We’re monitoring it very closely,” Barr said Monday morning. The Burningtown-Iotla Fire & Resuce is continuing to check the dam area throughout the day and barriers have been posted as an added safety precaution.
“We are thankful that everything is safe, and no one was injured,” Barr said. “It is being managed in the best possible way.”
The Burningtown Lakes dam was built in 1970 and is located off Daves Creek Road in northern Macon County. It has a surface area at normal pool of 4.34 acres. The dam is classified as a “high-hazard” dam not because of its condition but because of the potential impact it would cause to human life and property should the dam fail. Cabe said high-hazard dams have a rigid inspection schedule. The Burningtown Lakes dam was inspected in November 2018 and was listed as being in fair condition, according to the North Carolina Dam Safety Program website.