The Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Committee’s move last week to begin seeking bids to fix the Jersey Valley dam was not a promise that the dam will be fixed.

The committee voted unanimously to begin taking bids for the estimated $2.5 million repair project. The county board agreed to spend $1.7 million to repair the dam last year. In addition, the county has $500,000 in money from the state for the project. So, with just $2.2 million approved for the project, bids would have to come in under the $2.5 million amount to be considered. Otherwise, the county board would have vote again to approve spending more money on the project. Also, the Land and Water Conservation Committee (LWCC) has to approve a bid.

"This does not mean we’re repairing Jersey Valley dam," Will Beitlich, chairman of the LWCC, said.

During the LWCC’s meeting, last Thursday, the committee discussed fixing numerous dams and problems with manure runoff in the Jersey Valley watershed.

Prior to Jersey Valley Lake being emptied in 2005, manure runoff killed fish in the lake. Another significant manure runoff, that would have killed the fish in the lake, occurred earlier this year.

County conservationist Kelly Jacobs told the committee that Vernon County, Monroe County and the DNR are working together to address the issue of manure runoff in Jersey Valley watershed.

"Until they get this manure issue solved, I say we don’t spend a nickel on Jersey Valley," committee member Herbert Cornell said.

Committee member Kevin Larson questioned the engineering plan, developed by AECOM of Madison and approved by the DNR, to drill holes to pipe concrete grout into the dam.

"Is this plan enough to fix that east wall that we heard was causing the problem?" Larson said.

Larson was referring to hillside fissures east of the Jersey Valley dam that engineers said was leading water to leak downstream just behind the dam.

"What the fix tries to do is make the water work harder to get around," county resource conservationist Phil Hahn said. "There will be some leaking, this will be pushing the leak path into the hillside instead of through the dam."

Larson then asked that if the fissures in the east hillside aren’t fixed, could the county find itself two years down the road with the same problem?

Hahn said that the dam repair had been designed by the AECOM and approved by the DNR. If it were to fail due to an error in engineering, Hahn said AECOM would be responsible. However, a number of engineers, including those at AECOM and the DNR, believe the plan to drill and grout across the entire dam was the "best option and the most cost-effective," Hahn said.

Hahn said that should the county fix the dam, it will know quickly if the fix worked. Hahn said if the dam’s leaking is greatly reduced, the lake should fill back up in six months. Hahn said when the lake was originally created it took 18 months to fill. That’s one of the reasons why engineers knew from the beginning, back in the 1960s, that the lake leaked.

Hahn said the county has received letters of interest in the repair project from six nationally-known major engineering firms, which have experience making the repairs Jersey Valley requires. He said three of those were Fortune 500 companies.

The $2.5 million cost estimate for fixing Jersey Valley was called conservative when it was issued and Hahn said that the bids should be "very competitive."

Should everything fall into place and a bid to repair the dam is approved, construction could be started by July and the entire project could be completed before the winter freeze arrives, Hahn said.

The county has been under orders by the DNR to repair Jersey Valley dam since 2005.

In other action regarding county dams, Hahn reported that installation of a high-water warning system at nine high-hazard dams in the county should begin just after July 4.