TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: Adam Lindsay, Assistant City Manager
FROM: Sheila Thomas-Ambat, PE, Public Services Director
DATE: April 7, 2025
RE:
Title
Presentation on College Lake Dam and Proposed Solutions for Carvers Creek Watershed
end
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
1l
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
Supports Goal 3. City Investment in Today and Tomorrow, through the Strategic Objective 3.1 Enhance city street connectivity, traffic flow, and stormwater systems
Executive Summary:
Staff seeks concurrence from City Council to approve staff to program the following two items into the annual CIP prioritization process and pursue grants as applicable: (A) the College Lake Dam redesign, and (B) the proposed solutions from the Carvers Creek Watershed Study.
Background:
A. College Lake Dam
College Lake is a City-maintained and currently drained facility. Its existing spillway has been modified to function as a culvert, preventing water from impounding with the facility. College Lake experienced damage from Hurricane Florence in 2018. Repairs were recommended to mitigate the immediate damages. According to the Post-Hurricane Florence Dam Assessments Memorandum (2018) by Hazen and Sawyer, even the undamaged spillway configuration of the College Lake Dam likely could not meet the NC Dam Safety requirements for a small high-hazard dam, which is College Lake Dam's classification. The memorandum reported two options for the City moving forward:
1. Fully breach/remove the dam: This eliminates the operational costs and risks of continued service but also requires downstream mitigation improvements.
2. Redesign the dam: This requires additional costs to install a spillway configuration that meets the NC Dam Safety requirements. Namely, the dam must safely pass the 1/3 probable maximum precipitation (PMP) event.
The additional analysis conducted through the Carvers Creek watershed study indicates that the Redesigned D...
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