Starting Monday morning the Stillhouse Hollow Dam will undergo work and testing.
The Stillhouse Hollow Dam was built nearly 50 years ago.
"We've had two major floods here. One time it over topped the spillway back in 1992, and the dam did as designed," Ronnie Bruggman, the Stillhouse Hollow Lake Manager, said.
...and it has continued to do so... but, recently, a specialized, dam-safety group made up of experts from all over the nation, inspected the Stillhouse Hollow Dam and decided new instruments should be installed as a part of routine work and testing.
"We're going to be providing some upgrades so these new instruments can be read through the satellites which will keep us from having to come out here and read some of those," Bruggman added.
As water collects in the lake, pressure builds up in the dam... and for everyone's safety, it is important that pressure can be continually monitored.
"In the dam, we have inclinometers and also piezometers. Inclinometers basically measure the alignment of the dam. Piezometers measure the pressures," Bruggman said.
But, rest assured, the Stillhouse Hollow Dam is structurally safe and sound.
"The Corps has never had a dam fail," Bruggman added.
The new monitoring instruments will send data electronically every 15 minutes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects the work and testing on the dam to be complete in approximately three weeks.
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