As I understand it, the boil water notice is because we had low water pressure in Athens on Monday morning and that lead to fears of a "backflow" condition into the water lines. I am not an engineer, nor do I play one on the internet.

I found the following information about the dam on Lake Athens here.
"Lake Athens Dam and appurtenant structures consist of an earth-fill embankment, 3,000 feet in length, with a maximum height of 67 feet and a crest elevation of 453.0 feet. The service spillway is an uncontrolled rectangular drop inlet.

The crest elevation for the six-feet by six-feet opening is 440.0 feet. The emergency spillway, located at the left (north) abutment of the dam, is an earth trench cut through the natural ground. The crest is 300 feet in length at elevation 446.0 feet. The outlet works is an 18-inch diameter concrete pipe with an invert elevation of 396.5 feet above the mean sea level and is controlled by a slide valve."

So if I'm reading that correctly, Lake Athens would have to reach 440 feet before water would flow over the emergency spillway on the north end of the dam.

I spoke with the folks at AMWA around 1pm today and they too said the state engineers were talking about a controlled release from AF&G, but he didn't have any further details. The lake continues to drop as of now. As for contamination, most of the boat houses were flooded, so who knows what is in the water now. I'm glad they're testing it though.

..........and people are complaining that they are releasing water from some lakes when they just made it to full pool.

Perhaps at 100% Capacity when more rain is on the way isn't always a good thing.

No, at 440', the lake's conservation level, nothing happens, no spill-over. But, any water over that level would begin to flow out of the 6' by 6' opening.

If it exceeds the 6' on the vertical side of that drain, that would be 440' + 6' = 446' . . . it would be at that point that the additional water would begin to flow over the 300' section of the dam which is at . . . 446'. And, of course, it would continue to flow out of the "now under-water" 6' by 6'.

So, if you look at the logs of Lake Athens, other than some drought related drops to 434' or so over the years, it spends most of its time at 440'. Any normal amount of added water simply flows out that unmanned opening. If there is a deluge and water rises quicker than it can find its way out the 6' by 6', then it runs over the end of the dam.

For now, at just below 442' last I looked, the water is escaping only via the 6 by 6 drain.

If, say, the 21.6 square miles of watershed all washed into the lake in a short period of time after a huge rain event, the lake would likely rise to 446' and then it would exit over the 300' section.

This is, by the way, the fear factor related to AF&G, that its dam will wash away and all of its water will drain into Lake Athens suddenly. I think I posted the math earlier. It is not so much that the lake would rise all that much if this were to happen, it is the danger of a tsunami-like event at the north end of the lake.

You don't normally close boat ramps when a lake is up only 2 feet above conservation pool.

Brad

The Athens paper stated the AF&G issue was under control & the water level had dropped.
I went to Lake Athens ramps at noon & they were still closed off.
The water level seemed to have dropped a foot from where it was yesterday at noon.
BUT,,,,, here it is 3:20pm and it is pouring rain once again,,,,, a real frog strangler.
Not going to help either lake or the guys out there trying to do repairs on FM 317 @ AF&G.

The whole area is under a flash flood watch for more training of storms causing "very heavy" rain. I've never seen a period this long with this much heavy rain this often.

I miss fishing

Updates for AF& G Club:
Spoke to Mike, our association president.

* Lake was dropping slowly, but there were wier boards (sp?) within the overflow drain. Removed them after 6-hours of work today, working from a barge. Lake dropped a lot.
* Hwy 317 crossing our dam is closed.
* State was there today cutting a temporary run-off thru the road
* Results of all these actions dropped the lake 5-feet in past 24-hours.
* I was told the lake is muddy (dry) in places. Could only be fished via a canoe, kayak, etc.
* First time since the place was founded in 1921, that the water has ever crested the dam.
THIS SUCKS.

so why is the Lake Athens ramps still closed ?
anyone know ?

As the old farmer said..."Rainfall is like sex. You can get caught up in a hurry."

Good update, Gary and others.

As of 6:30 this morning, Thursday, Lake Athens is at 441.60', so 1.6 feet above its conservation level.

No properties are at risk since the AMWA owns all land around the perimeter of the lake to at least 448'. I doubt boat houses and docks are affected as these are almost always constructed at heights assuming there will be some high water at times.

Floating debris? Maybe some of that; and, like Lake Fork and Granbury, I suppose they might want to let things settle out where tree trunks are now just below the surface, no longer visible.

My guess is a bit of over-reaction here regarding the closing of the Lake Athens boat ramps but heavy rains were in the forecast, so as soon as the water retreats a bit more, I bet they open up.

The lake, after all, has dropped even with more rain falling.

Brad

my uncle had a place on AF&G. I hope it does not get breached. that lake has some awesome fishing.

Some more recent news below.

As it turns out, they were never considering running water over the road to alleviate pressure. Apparently, an old valve hadn't been used in 16 or 17 years is being revitalized, that and they are going to cut in an emergency spillway similar to the 300' one Lake Athens has.

So, other than some road damage, I think the whole issue is, or will be, soon resolved.

There simply isn't enough water in the entirety of AF&G for it to have ever been all that much of a problem for Lake Athens, certainly if it is released under a controlled basis via valve/spillway.

Lake Athens is at 441.43' as of 5:30 AM this Friday morning.

I am not sure how much rain/run-off it may have received over the last day or two, but one can readily see that it is a stable lake compared to many others in our region. It took on some unusual rain amounts in the area and never got much above 442', 2 feet over its conservation level, and it never even closely approached the height of 446' where it would then begin to flow over the 300' spillway at the end of the dam.

http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-News+Local/219632/emergency-action-continues-on-athens-dam

This is good news for AF&G, too, as things will soon be back to normal.

Brad