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NORWAY, Maine — Following a surge of complaints about low water levels over the summer, engineers inspected the dam linking Pennesseewassee Lake and Pennesseewassee Stream to determine whether water was leaking and contributing to the decline.
Engineers found no significant water loss. Still, the unusually low water level revealed a faulty spillway and other serious structural vulnerabilities that could lead to catastrophic dam failure during high-water events.
In a twist of irony, the damage might have gone undetected had water levels stayed high. Town officials have moved quickly to initiate repairs and reduce the risk of dam failure before spring runoff.
Over a three-week period in October, Bancroft Construction Corp. of South Paris repaired leaking timber boards, concrete beams and other structural elements of the dam, which was built in 1935, at an initial cost of about $91,000.
The final cost is pending an invoice to the town.
“The repairs will ensure that the gates will not fail during highwater,” interim Town Manager Jeffery Campbell wrote in an email.
The bad news, however, is the repairs are not expected to significantly improve current conditions for residents and recreational boaters on Norway Lake, who endured extremely low water levels throughout the summer.
“The town was receiving a lot of calls from concerned citizens saying, ‘Oh, we see the water is really low, and we see leaking in the dam,’” Sarah Carter-Hill, vice chair of the Norway Select Board, said.
She said engineers who inspected the dam determined that leakage was not the cause of the lake’s low water levels.
“There has always been flow-by of some water through the dam, even when it is completely closed,” Campbell said. “The significant reduction of the lake level was due to the extreme lack of rain this past summer.”
The low water levels allowed engineers to clearly identify the dam’s faulty spillway, and made potential failure points easier to access and repair.
The repairs were completed in two phases: boards visible above the waterline were fixed first, followed by underwater dam house boards, which were sealed using advanced techniques, according to minutes from the Select Board’s meeting Oct. 16.
Campbell said at least one of the dam’s boards was so damaged it might not have withstood high water during the spring melt.
“This failure would have resulted in increased flow of water over the dam, but the main concrete structure of the dam is in good condition, and there was no risk of flood or mass water loss of the lake,” he said.
Carter-Hill said an increase in calls from concerned residents about low water levels prompted a thorough inspection of the dam and revealed failure points, leading to the recent repairs.
The town was aware the dam needed repairs and had addressed issues over the years, but Carter-Hill said she believes complaints accelerated this particular project.
“It already had been in the works, and there was money being put into it,” she said, “because these were issues we knew we needed to fix anyway.”
Drought conditions and low water levels may have frustrated property owners around the lake, but Carter-Hill said they created ideal conditions for completing the repairs. Typically, construction crews must install a temporary cofferdam to hold back water during such work.
But because the lake was already so low, little effort was needed to reduce water levels further.
“It made for perfect timing to do the repairs,” she said. “These repairs are something we’ve definitely been talking about the last few years.”
In his email, Campbell wrote that the town is also taking steps, such as using bark mulch, to reduce leakage during dry months.
Campbell said the lake’s water level is governed by a consent agreement between the Norway Lakes Association and the town of Norway.
Sal Girifalco, president of the Lake Association of Norway, said maintaining target water levels is a tricky balancing act.
“It’s a very challenging operation to keep the water levels right,” Girifalco said. “If they guess wrong and there’s too much water, some areas flood. If they guess wrong and there’s not enough, and it doesn’t rain, then the lake stays low. So it’s a real challenge to manage the lake levels appropriately.
“There’s always questions about the dam being, the water being too low in the summer and so forth. So it’s a perpetual topic. My strongest wish is that it not be a perpetual topic.”
