Plan will shrink Pye Lake to prevent flooding of homes downstream

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Permanent changes are planned for Pye Lake to prevent flooding trouble on Cornwallis Way and Monmouth Drive in Fayetteville.

The solution selected by the Fayetteville City Council Thursday night will shrink the overall footprint of the lake by about half and repair the dam which will be reduced in height.

Also, two culverts that go under Cornwallis Way will be made larger to handle larger water flows from the lake.

The modifications, when complete, will remove all 16 homes from the 100-year floodplain, city officials said.

To compensate for reducing the lake’s footprint, the city plans to plant landscaping along the lake in the area where the lake level once reached.

The lake will be reduced from its former average depth of between 10 and 12 feet to between 9 and 10 feet.

The modifications to Pye Lake will cost an estimated $737,581, with funds coming from the city’s stormwater utility program. City Manger Joe Morton noted that the city leveraged $2.1 million in bonds so it could move forward quickly with projects like this instead of waiting several years for the stormwater utility to build up enough funds to start the project.

Because the lake level is being reduced, the lake will be divided into an upper portion and a lower portion which will be separated by a small dam, said City Engineer Don Easterbrook.

The lake is privately owned but the owner has been made aware that an easement or fee simple mechanism will be needed for the city to have control of the lake to make the repairs, Morton said.

Although one citizen whose property overlooks the lake claimed the city didn’t need to lower the lake level, Morton said the city “had no choice” to do so for the protection of lives and property downstream of the lake, which feeds into Gingercake Creek.

The city has been using a temporary siphon system to keep the lake’s level down after the Georgia Safe Dams program determined the dam had structural problems which needed emergency repairs.

Although the plan involves reducing the height of the dam and removing it from the jurisdiction of the Safe Dams program, Mayor Ken Steele said the dam will be repaired to engineering standards.

“Well still design it to stringent safety standards so there is protection of life and property downstream,” said Charles Absher, an engineer with Integrated Science and Engineering, which analyzed the Pye Lake problems for the city.

Safe Dams officials will need to sign off on the plans before the repair and modifications can take place, Absher said.

City Councilman Al Hovey-King abstained from the discussion, leaving the council chambers after announcing that he owns property in the area.