Crews contracted by McLennan County worked through possible storms Wednesday to install a flexible pipe to drain a swollen reservoir near Bruceville-Eddy that has flooded one home and threatened others.
The McLennan County Commissioners Court approved the work on an emergency basis Tuesday, hiring an Ellis County company to expedite the drainage of a Soil Conservation Service reservoir called Cow Bayou Site No. 5. The initial budget for the work is estimated at $50,000.
Moir Watershed Services LLC worked Wednesday to lay several hundred feet of 18-inch flexible pipe to remove water from the reservoir. The pipe will be placed to direct the water to the dip basin downstream of the dam.
A power shovel operated by an employee of Moir Watershed Services LLC carries another section of 18-inch flexible pipe that will be installed as a secondary drainage mechanism in addition to the similarly sized pipe that runs below the dam. The secondary pipes will run around the dam and discharge the water into the drainage basin downstream of the dam.
Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald
“These are not normal amounts of rain that we have been receiving,” McLennan County Judge Scott Felton said in an email Wednesday. “We must be ready to act to help preserve public health and safety.”
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The National Weather Service has reported 9.4 inches of rain at Waco Regional Airport so far this month, and the region was under a flash flood and tornado watch through Wednesday night, with possible rainfall of 2 to 3 inches.
Bounded by North Old Bruceville Road to the east, Smith Lane to the north and Lake Shore Drive to the south, the reservoir now extends to cover the northwest end of Park Lake Drive. Before the recent rains, the lake measured about 1,800 feet from east to west and 1,000 feet from north to south. URJ Greene Family Camp is located about 1,600 feet from the lake at normal elevation, at the end of Smith Lane.
The lake is located about 1.5 miles north of Bruceville-Eddy City Hall.
Cow Bayou Site 5, near Bruceville-Eddy, is 44 feet above normal pool height.
Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald
Rudy Money, who lives next to the reservoir, said it's 44 feet above normal. The Moneys have owned the land for over 40 years and have lived there for the last 30. Money's land runs halfway through the dam, while another family owns the land from there around the rest of the dam, he said.
“This is by far the highest we've ever seen on the lake,” Money said Wednesday.
Frank Johnson, who owns property adjacent to Money and farther from the dam, placed a $52,000 solar array in the floodplain, but thought the water would never reach it. It was completely covered over the weekend.
Another homeowner who built near the dam's emergency spillway now has water less than a foot from his house, James Moir, owner of Moir Watershed Services, said Wednesday.
Tree line around Cow Bayou Site 5 near Bruceville-Eddy may be partially submerged as pool height reached 44 feet above normal in recent heavy rain events .
Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald
The bottom house used to have to go all the way down to the water's edge at Cow Bayou Site Reservoir 5. After the last heavy rains, the height of the pool rose up the porch steps, almost to the level of the front door.
Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald
In the middle of the reservoir, a group of trees was partially flooded Monday, and on the other side of Money's property, a house could be seen flooded up to the windows.
When the flexible pipe is laid, the goal is for the water to drain at a manageable flow rate, Precinct 1 Commissioner Jim Smith said by phone Tuesday.
“The lake already has a drainage pipe built to drain under the dam as the main spillway,” Smith said. “We are going to increase the drainage volume of the dam enough to prevent the height of the pool from inundating homes and causing property damage around the lake, but not so much that it causes flooding downstream.”
The resolution commissioners approved Tuesday would allow the county to also add additional drainage to a pond near the 3 Road and Bridge Equipment Yard on Snider Road near West and any other county water body that could threaten its overflow from 'emergency, Felton said earlier. Tuesday's vote.
Cow Bayou Site No. 5 was built in 1957 as a flood control structure by the Soil Conservation Service, a federal agency subsumed into the Natural Resources Conservation Service in 1994. The Snider Road Reservoir was built around same time
These are earth dams and are designed to drain within 28 days, Moir said. There are about 50 in McLennan County, 110 in Navarro County and about 40 in Hill County.
Moir said the dam is working as designed, but no homes were planned to be built around it.
“Cow Bayou, this one here, was designed purely for flood control and not for recreation,” Moir said. “When this was built there was nothing around here but the county road, and if it washed out in heavy rains, people could be cut off for weeks.”
Now that homes have been built in the floodplain and next to the emergency spillway, property is being threatened and destroyed by rising waters.
Some of the county's watersheds have taxing authorities and other funding mechanisms in place to maintain dams and other flood control measures, such as the Tehuacana Creek Water District and the Brazos River Authority, said county engineer Zane Dunnam.
“The Cow Bayou Watershed Authority was dissolved decades ago, so there is no taxing authority or funding mechanism to maintain the flood control structures there,” Dunnam said. “The county budgets about $50,000 a year for the maintenance of flood control structures that have no other maintenance.”
Johnson, who lost a solar array in the recent flood, said Wednesday that everyone should check all flood easements and flood plains before buying land or building on it. He hopes others will learn from what happened to him.
Contractors prepare to install an 18-inch diameter flexible plastic pipe to speed up lake drainage at Cow Bayou Site 5 near Bruceville-Eddy.
Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald
