Delegation Secures $6 Million
To Finish Waterbury Dam Repairs

WASHINGTON (Tues., Nov. 18) – Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator Jim Jeffords and Representative Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday that they have secured $6 million to finish repairs to Waterbury Dam.  The funds were included in the annual appropriations bill for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that will go to the President this week for his signature. 

“We have kept this a high priority for the Corps and for the Congress,” said Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  “The Corps and the construction crew have been working hard to keep the project on schedule, and these funds will let them stay on track next summer so that we can have the reservoir back up as soon as possible.  Like other Vermonters who live nearby, I look forward to seeing repairs finished so we know it’s safe."

Jeffords, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which handles Corps authorizations, said, "I am grateful that we can now move to the final stages of repairing the dam, and that Vermonters can look forward to using the Waterbury Reservoir again for recreational purposes.  I know this has been a hardship, and I thank the local community for its patience while the Army Corps performs these critical repairs."

Sanders said, "This funding will help ensure the safety of tens of thousands of Vermonters in the Winooski River Valley.  Finishing the repairs of the Waterbury Dam at the earliest possible time remains one of the highest public safety issues in Vermont.  I am pleased that we were able secure the funding for Corps to make sure we keep the repair schedule on track."

In 2000, the Army Corps found that the dam was at risk of catastrophic failure, a situation that led to the immediate drawdown of water levels in the reservoir.  The repairs started in the summer of 2002 and continued this year.  A new state-of-the-art drilling rig was brought in this fall from Japan to begin work on the retaining wall.  Water levels at the dam have had to be kept below the normal 590-foot summer recreational level, which has hampered recreational access to the reservoir.  Including this appropriations, the delegation has secured $15.9 million for the project overall. 

The delegation also included a provision in the spending bill to allow the Army Corps to also repair the flood control gates at the dam.  That work will be done in the summer of 2005 and will help the state better manage downstream water flows.

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