Quote:
Originally Posted by logs22
I noticed the same thing driving by so I stopped to take a look. I didn't walk all the way back to the dam but from what I could tell it seemed Like the water was just rain and runoff that has accumulated in the lowest parts of the basin and just hasnt reached levels high enough to drain through where the dam was dismantled.
I still don't get what happened with that project, nomahegan was completed very quickly and efficiently. LAKE surprise is the only real lake in the Watchung Reservation (Seeley and Moxon are what I consider small ponds) and watching reservation is by far the largest preserved space in Union County - you would think it would be given some priority especially since lake was already drained (years ago at this point).
My theory is that the county never intended to rebuild the dam. From what I read, the dam itself Was identified by Army engineers as not being structurally sound so the county needed to take action bedore the dam failed. The last time a dam like that failed in Union County was in 1889 when the echo lake dam failed and the resulting flood swept through downtown Cranford and was a disaster. So The county wasn't draining surprise LAKE so they Could dredge and improve it, hat was all an afterthought and probably just empty promises. The county drained the lake and removed the dam to avoid potential liability and with that threat neutralized they dont have much incentive to undertake the costly process of rebuilding it. If they did the same with Nomahegan or Echo there would be public outrage but since Surprise is in Reservation and not located near any residential area my guess is no one has complained loud enough to warrant county politician's notice and/or concern.
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wait, did they "remove" the damn dam or repair it? is the water going to just come up to like 2 feet deep then pass through like a culvert under the road?
