Klamath Falls, Ore. – They don’t own it, but Klamath County Commissioners have agreed to cover the cost of patching a recent hole in a levee in Klamath Falls.
However, the situation may reflect a much bigger problem.
The levee along Lakeshore Drive developed a leak in June.
Klamath County Commissioner Donnie Boyd says volunteers helped put in emergency sandbags. “The next morning, we needed four or five loads of rock to help stabilize it – and the county took that rock out there and dumped it.”
Boyd points out the levee is not county property, and is privately owned.
“The reason we did it was, it had a potential to reach Lakeshore Drive if things had been real bad.” Boyd notes. “And then of course, we would have flooded a few homes.”
The aging levee was built in 1927.
A failure would threaten 15 to 20 homes in the Lakeshore Garden District.
Commissioner Boyd says the latest repair cost about $5000. “We wrote the bill off, and decided to sent them a letter that says they need to start maintaining their own dike.”
Boyd adds the Lakeshore levee isn’t the only aging levee in Klamath County in need of maintenance. “There is probably thousands in Klamath County, when you talk about around the lake, and around the canals, and the irrigation project – there’s a lot of dikes in the county.”
This isn’t the first time the Lakeshore levee has failed.
When a lead was discovered in 2008, repairs totaled more than $25,000.
The levee extends about a mile along the south end of Upper Klamath Lake.
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