By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A recent news story has triggered renewed concern about the safety of Amistad Dam.
The story, published in the McAllen Monitor and reprinted on social media sites, seems to imply that the U.S. Corps of Engineers “has downgraded the structural integrity of Amistad Dam to a Class Two.”
Although a cursory glance at the story might suggest that the re-classification was recent, International Boundary and Water Commission and local officials were quick to point out the classification of the dam has remained the same for the past 15 years.
Amistad Dam is currently classified as Class II “unsafe or potentially unsafe” on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dam Safety Action Classification scale, but the dam has had that classification since 2007.
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. spoke to the 830 Times about the story and the concerns it has raised in an interview Thursday.
“The article that came out, when you read it, there’s five (dam safety) classifications. Class V is there’s no problem, everything’s good, we can go down the road. The problem is that our (dam) is classified as a Class II, with the worst being a Class I,” Owens said.
Owens confirmed Amistad Dam has been at a Class II designation since 2007.
“The thing is, though, if you look at the scale, just somebody from the outside, even myself, you kind of panic and wonder when the flood’s going to start,” Owens said.
“But in visiting with individuals the day before yesterday, from the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), they said that’s just the scale that they rate it on. It’s just a scale. They have plans to begin the work on it in June 2024, but when you’ve read the article, it scares you,” he said.
“If I were living anywhere in Val Verde County, I would be scared, just because of the families and homes and everything else. But at the end of the day, the IBWC does have a plan, and they have checked to see if there’s any other sinkholes (other than those already located), checked to see if the springs on the bottom side of the dam, if they’re running more water. They know that the springs are part of the sinkholes, the sinkholes are part of the springs, because they did dye tests,” Owens said,
He pointed out that in the intervening years, IBWC officials have taken some steps to mitigate the sinkhole issues.
“What they’ve done with the sinkholes, they call it rip-rap, it’s just big rocks that they throw in there, but what hurts all this is, if you get a little break in it, naturally with that much water, that much pressure, it begins to erode, and then we have a big problem,” Owens said.
We asked if he was confident that the problem today was no worse problem than it has been for at least the past decade.
“Yes,” the judge replied, but added, “You hate even saying because what could happen today or tomorrow? And who really knows? But this problem has existed, it’s been there. It’s been there, and it’s been there for years, and it will be there for at least another year-and-a-half.”
Owens said as soon as he was made aware of the story – which dealt with a presentation the IBWC made in mid-November about its plan for a permanent solution at Amistad Dam – he contacted IBWC officials.
“I think, just by visiting with an engineer out of El Paso that is dealing with this issue, I feel confident, if we were in immediate danger, that they would be down here and immediately working on a solution, actually physically working on a solution,” he said.
Owens said he has also spoken about the issue to City Manager John Sheedy and other local governmental entities “as to what could happen and what our response would be.”
“We asked things like, ‘Who’s going to get notified, and how much time is that going to take?’ You don’t want to get a phone call from somebody down on the Vega telling you there’s a lot more water coming down the river, and you haven’t gotten a phone call (from the IBWC) yet,” Owens said.
The county judge said he has been provided with lists of names and contact numbers, adding he is confident “we will be notified as soon as something happens.”
Owens said there are still uncertainties, however.
“It’s like almost everything else. You don’t know until you actually get into the process how bad it’s going to be or how much material it’s going to take. You can sit there and guess and do your little studies all day long, but until you actually begin to do some of this and you might find out, ‘It’s bigger than we thought,’ or not,” Owens said.
“I will tell you that in visiting with several entities here in Val Verde County, we will begin to have a plan, we will go down there and look, and what we’ve asked for, is, I called and asked for inundation maps, so we’ve asked for all that,” the judge said.
“These issues have been here for a while . . . Is there a concern? Absolutely. And in the conversation we had a couple of days ago, there hasn’t been another sighting of a sinkhole in a couple of years. The sinkhole that we were concerned about, they have put rip-rap in there to be able to stop the erosion process, and they are monitoring it, every day, during the day, and not only that, but the integrity of the dam itself and the earthen supports on both sides of the dam, and we will continue to have conversations with the IBWC, and we will continue our conversations with the city and with the school district,” Owens said.
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