Manmade lake at park leaking around overflow pipe

The lake in Cape County Park South 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 where it enters the earthen dam that created the lake. The pipe 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.

"It is getting undermined in there," McQuay told the Cape Girardeau County Commission on Thursday. "We are going to have to do something."

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 to say until I talk to an engineer. We are probably going to run a camera down through there," he said.

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.

The pipe drains water out of the lake to the base of the dam. The bottom of the steel pipe is corroded both at the lake end and at the bottom of the dam. where a steady stream of water similar to the amount flowing from a typical garden hose runs constantly.

As long as the water stays low in the lake, the trickle of water running through the pipe shouldn't create many problems, Alexander said. But if sustained rains raised the water level, the erosive effects could grow worse. "That is a situation that can very easily end up in the failure of the dam," he said.

The lake opened to the public June 1, 1979. McQuay said he isn't sure who designed the lake and has contacted the Soil and Water Conservation District and the U.S. Department of Agriculture service center in an attempt to find blueprints.

Fixing the pipe by inserting a new pipe inside, then injecting grouting to fill the empty spaces could be a solution for the county, Alexander said.

Steps will have to be taken to protect the repairs to prevent further seeping, McQuay said.

Commissioners asked McQuay to gather information about the potential cost of repairs and report to them at their regular meeting Monday morning.

"I am trying to be proactive on this," McQuay said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126