Project team outlines plan to modify Chrissy Lake Dam; council hears concerns about access, flooding and timeline

Project leads from the Palm Day River Association and consulting engineers outlined a revised alternative to the Chrissy Lake Dam that would lower water south of Highway 10, add engineered rock rapids at the existing dam location and restore a historic river channel alignment.

Sophia Verusa, the watershed coordinator, said the team heard about 60 people at an open house on March 6 and had returned to address landowner concerns. Eric Jones (engineering) described the preferred alternative: cut down parts of the existing dam, place rock to form rapids and create a pool between the dam and the highway. The change would drop the south-side reservoir level roughly four to five feet and create space to reuse excavated material on the west side of the dog park to form ADA-accessible fishing and recreational green space.

On the north side of Highway 10, the team proposed limited dredging of a sedimented arm behind Riverview Drive to maintain depth and access. Dredged material would be reused within the reservoir — primarily on the east side — to make campground-side ground more usable and to re-establish a channel alignment similar to a 1938 footprint. Engineers said the goal is to create a more natural riffle-pool pattern (with rapids about 70'to'90 feet wide and a restored channel roughly 5'to'6 feet deep in places) and to slow long-term sedimentation.

Project staff said hydraulic modeling is incomplete; they estimated typical flows in the reach could be on the order of 280 cubic feet per second and emphasized that modeling is needed to finalize elevations, rapids geometry and effects on nearby roads. They also noted a newly effective floodplain designation (effective Sept. 24 of the prior year) and said the proposed work would not change the overall floodplain designation but would require coordination with county bridge engineering. County bridge replacement is tentatively scheduled as early as 2027, and the design team said it is coordinating with county engineers to align schedules and elevations.

Residents asked whether isolated pockets would be stagnant or flowing, where fishing access points could be located (including west-of-highway locations), and whether campground expansion would be possible; engineers replied the pocket areas would be relatively shallow (one to three feet) and the proposed green spaces would be designed and vegetated to discourage invasive cattails and buckthorn, not left as soft, unusable sludge.

The team said they anticipate refining designs after hydraulic modeling and public comment; they indicated a public-comment/provincial review window closing in late April or early May with a next meeting and continued coordination to follow. No formal council action was taken at this meeting.