Lake at county park leaking

The lake in South County Park is leaking.

Water is seeping around the overflow pipe at the south end of the lake off U.S. 61. The leak was discovered by Don McQuay, director of public works for Cape Girardeau County, during a routine inspection.

Erosion has removed some of the material surrounding the upper end of the pipe, which can be seen above the water line about halfway down the roadway leading over the dam. The pipe is a secondary path for high water out of the lake, McQuay said, supplementing the open spillway.

The lake is owned and maintained by the county. It is too small to be regulated by the state of Missouri, said Jim Alexander, chief engineer for the Dam and Reservoir Safety Council.

Putting a liner in the pipe to prevent further erosion is one possible way of fixing the problem, McQuay said. "I really don't want too say until I talk to an engineer. We are probably going to run a camera down through there," he said.

Left unchecked, the seepage could lead to big problems with the dam, Alexander said. "The problem is when you have water flowing around the outside of the pipe. When it makes its way back in, it is creating a void on the outside of the pipe and you could lose the entire contents of the lake."