Somerset — Most local people seemed satisfied with responses from a Corps of Engineers’ panel during a community forum Thursday night about the instability of Wolf Creek Dam.

The 800 theater seats at The Center for Rural Development in Somerset were about half full for the first meeting in Kentucky with the Corps since Lake Cumberland has been lowered to 43 feet below the tree line for the remainder of this year. Previous community meetings have been held downstream from Wolf Creek Dam, classified as a “high risk” for failure.

Lt. Col. Steven Roemhildt, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Nashville District, repeated a Corps promise that “ ... we have no plans to reduce the pool that is now 680 feet above sea level. He did say there is a possibility of a lower lake level if conditions worsen at the dam.

Roemhildt apparently means that if the accelerated grouting now underway at the dam doesn’t shut off most of the seepage, or if sinkholes or muddy flows develop, it may be necessary to further lower the lake level. Corps officials have said the situation at the dam will be reevaluated late this year and they emphasized that “public safety trumps all.”

The Corps commander assured the Somerset crowd that Wolf Creek Dam is being closely monitored seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The monitoring includes sophisticated pressure reading equipment in the dam’s structure and “ ... somebody is walking the dam 24 hours a day.”

Corps officials repeated an earlier statement that conditions at the dam have not changed as much as the way the Corps currently evaluates dam safety. A lot is being done differently since Hurricane Katrina washed away low-lying parts of New Orleans, they indicated.

A $309.1 million rehabilitation of Wolf Creek Dam got underway a couple of months ago. It includes a four-foot-thick concrete diaphragm inserted to level 475, or about 100 feet into the bedrock below the dam.

Corps officials believe at this depth the new diaphragm will be below the limestone karst blamed for the leaking. An existing diaphragm, installed after more serious leaks developed in the 1960s, extends only 25 feet into the bedrock and doesn’t go the entire length of the earthen section of the dam.

Corps officials predicted Thursday night that it will take two years to complete the grouting and five years to insert the new diaphragm. The rehabilitation project is scheduled for completion in 2014.

After an hour and a half of explaining the situation at the dam, the community forum evolved into a question and answer session. Microphones at both sides of the theater allowed those in attendance to present questions to a panel of Corps and state officials. In summary, some of the answers were:

• Mike Zoccola, chief of the Civil Design Branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, revealed that the Corps has been requested to revisit the possibility of building a new dam to impound Lake Cumberland. He said such a project has been estimated to cost in the neighborhood of a billion dollars. “ ... And with environmental challenges this day and time, none of us in this room would live to see a new dam completed. Meantime, we’ve got to live with Wolf Creek Dam,” Zoccola concluded.

• Don Franklin, Area 12 manager for the Kentucky Department of Emergency Management, said efforts are being made to install more warning sirens along the lake in the event of a catastrophic breach of Wolf Creek Dam. He said most boats have marine radios to receive NOAA weather radio signals, carrier of a first alarm in the event of a dam failure.

• The Corps has authority to improve only launching ramps operated by the Corps, and at marinas. It was pointed out that the state and counties are working with the Corps to make the lake more accessible. The Corps is in the process of letting contracts for ramp improvements, including the ramp at Waitsboro Recreation Area and Lee’s Ford Marina and Resort. The ramp at Cumberland Point will be made usable in time for the upcoming vacation season, according to Mike Ensch, chief of operations for the Corps.

• Improvements to privately permitted ramps and county-operated ramps should be coordinated with the resource manager’s office in Somerset.

• The Corps will take advantage of lower lake levels to clean debris from the banks. Improvements will also be made at some Corps-operated recreational areas.

• There is no anticipation at the present time that travel will be disrupted on U.S. 127 across the dam. Zocolla said equipment relocation might cause lane blockage from time to time.

• Corps officials described the 35,000-acre Lake Cumberland at the current level as a “magnificent lake.”

Members of the Corps panel participating in the community forum were: Roemhildt, Zoccola, Bob Sneed, chief of the Corps’ Water Management Section; Ensch, Franklin, retired General Maxwell Bailey, director of Kentucky Emergency Management Department; and Marilyn Thomas, engineer with the Kentucky Department of Water and Dam Safety. Several members of Gov. Ernie Flether’s staff were in the audience.

A majority of questioners during the session profusely thanked the Corps for coming to Somerset.