The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is in the initial stages of developing a plan to repair the levee, spillway and water-control structures of Lake Grampus in Ashley County, which saw a levee collapse during Memorial Day weekend after severe rain weakened the structure and uprooted trees.
“We are committed to repairing the levee and reestablishing the lake, but it may be months before the plan can be put into action due to soil conditions, road conditions limiting access to the damaged area with heavy equipment and continued wet weather,” said Ben Batten, Deputy Director for the commission.
“We understand how important this resource is for local anglers and we want to do everything we can to get people fishing again on Grampus,” Batten said.
The same April 8 storm surge that caused floods to ravage the Spring River and two hatcheries in northeast Arkansas also caused damage to the levee at Grampus, which is an old oxbow once part of Bayou Bartholomew. According to Ryan Mozisek, regional fisheries supervisor at the commission’s Monticello office, the April flood caused an overflow pipe to split within the levee and scour away at the core of the structure, washing out the backside of the levee.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I was at the dam with one of our construction inspectors the day the pipe washed out,” Mozisek said. “We’ve been in the process of discussing repair costs and getting estimates from contractors since April, but the most recent event caused additional collapse, washing out the rest of the levee.” That storm, which occurred Memorial Day weekend, toppled multiple large oak trees growing in the levee, destabilizing the ground.
“When those oak trees came loose and their root wads came out of the ground, the rest of the levee saw a catastrophic collapse,” Mozisek said.
Grampus is a privately owned 350-acre lake in Ashley County, initially constructed in 1958 by an agreement between the Pugh Family and the Game and Fish Commission to construct the levee and create an irrigation reservoir and additional fishing for local residents. Public access has been available through renewals of 5-year access easements to the lake’s owners, who have changed since the levee was first established. The commission has constructed one concrete boat ramp on the lake and manages the fishery through monitoring efforts, stocking if conditions require it and treating vegetation to combat invasive plants when possible.
“To my knowledge, there have been no construction improvements to the levee or water-control structures since the lake was created 67 years ago,” Mozisek said. Property ownership compounds the issue with repairs to the levee, as decisions ultimately will need to be made by all parties involved in the construction.
“We are working through both the real estate challenges, legal ramifications and the potential fixes to remedy the situation,” Mozisek said. “We will communicate potential solutions to the problem as we know more and work through some of these hurdles.”
Randy Zellers is assistant chief of communications at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.