Beaver Lake: Popp digs through years of data to show engineering firm’s mistake
“I’ve only given a 10% of my effort to fundraising,” Brad Popp told the Jasper Park Board and over 200 members of the public who attended Tuesday’s meeting. “I’ve given 90% of my effort to find out why is the lake low.”
The park board had expected Popp to discuss working with them to pay for raising the spillway and dam to increase the water level in Beaver Lake. He and other members of a hastily formed group called The Friends of Beaver Lake had been fundraising to pay for the work to the dam. They were attempting to hit a $170,000 mark to pay for a little over half of the $334,000 bid submitted by Krempp Construction to complete the work. (Story here.)
Popp and the others had been meeting with the city to work out details to pay for the construction.
However, instead of discussing the collaboration between the city and property owners, Popp began to systematically reveal his findings regarding the Indiana Department of Natural Resources mandated spillway and dam project.
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“Tonight, I have the exact details; the exact answers; the exact mistake [Christopher] Burke [Engineering] made. And all of the mistakes in the Morley report,” Popp continued before asking park board President Roger Seger to give him the time to discuss his findings.
Here is the audio of Popp’s presentation to the park board.
Popp explained that in 1955 the original spillway constructed with the dam was a rock spillway that was later upgraded to a concrete shoot. He jumped to a 1980 dam report that stated the water level of the lake was 498.9 feet (above sea level) and that the level was maintained by the approach channel of the spillway.
Popp then stated a 1982 report from the city set the water level 498.77 feet NGVD that was set by a highpoint in the approach channel immediately upstream from the crest of the chute. NGVD stands for National Geodetic Vertical Datum which is a baseline that was established to measure the height of something from sea level. This baseline was changed to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988.
“This is where Christopher Burke [Engineering] comes in,” Popp continued.
During dam inspections in 2004 and 2008, Christopher Burke Engineering recognized the water level at 498.77 feet NGVD. “All they talk about [in the report] is the concrete spillway, the spillway is not just concrete,” Popp said. “The spillway also has an approach channel.”
Popp explained the approach channel is what controlled the water level of the lake until Christopher Burke Engineering’s report in 2004.
Then, the City of Jasper had Brosmer Surveying complete a survey of the spillway in 2010. “The 1982 dam inspection report appears to be roughly one foot higher than the survey completed by Brosmer,” Popp pointed out.
He read from the report. “‘It is unclear if this can be attributed to a difference in datums or some other factor.’ Datums are confusing but not for an engineer, I am not buying that. It is a 1-foot error and you blame it on a datum,” Popp said.
Popp then discussed conversations he and other representatives of Friends of Beaver Lake had with the Jasper Park and Recreation Department. According to Popp, Mike Oeding, the assistant superintendent of the department, told him that Brosmer took the reading from the concrete. “This raises the question, who told Brosmer where to shoot,” he said.
Popp then showed the data from the Brosmer Survey that stated the spillway level was 497.71 feet NGVD. “This is the correct elevation. However, this is the discharge channel, not the control elevation [section],” he said.
To further pinpoint Christopher Burke Engineering’s misconception on the spillway, Popp referred to a statement Brian McKenna, an engineer for the firm, made during a public meeting in 2008 in which he referred to the level of the lake being controlled by the concrete chute. “This is incorrect and if he had read the reports he prepared before this, he would have realized that this is incorrect,” Popp said.
Popp then explained that by converting the datum to the modern datum point, he was able to determine the spillway is actually 10.56 inches lower than the original control level from a 1982 report on the water level. During construction, Force Construction reported the spillway was about an inch lower than the design specifications.
This brought Popp to the Morley and Associates report commissioned by the utility service board after property owners and residents around the lake complained about the water level being lower.
He explained that in the executive summary of the finding by Morley and Associates referenced the 1982 study but got the elevation wrong. “This is the summary of findings, the executive summary,” Popp said before reading from the report. “Number 8; the USAC Phase II report, or ’82 report, indicated the normal lake pool elevation was 497.77 feet.”
“This is wrong. This is an investigative study and it is one foot off.”
Popp then went on to point out that Morley even reported Brosmer Surveying’s results incorrectly. He explained, again referring to the executive summary of the Morley study, that they reported the topographic survey conducted by Brosmer Surveying stated the spillway level was 497.76 feet. “Morley didn’t even get that number right,” he said. “It’s not 497.76 feet; it’s .71.”
Then he explained that the Morley report indicated the approach channel (identified as controlling the level of the lake in the 1982 report) would likely be removed and therefore was not measured during the survey completed by Brosmer. “Really,” he asked rhetorically about the difference in the height of the approach channel and the chute. “Only .77 feet; or 9.24 inches.”
Continuing from the Morley and Associates report, Popp explained, “Brosmer did their work per Christopher Burke [Engineering].”
He explained that in his opinion, Christopher Burke Engineering never recognized the rock approach as the control elevation point for the water level of the lake.
After some prompting to finalize his presentation by park board President Seger, Popp summarized his findings. “The city knew the [lake] elevation was wrong and I feel like they didn’t really care about all of us back here,” Popp said motioning to all the people in the council chambers. “[They] Hired Morley to do a limited field survey which we now know has many, many mistakes. I believe they paid around $6,000. They hired Christopher Burke [Engineering] to engineer the new addition for around $32,000. Applied for state permits … put notice to public bids. Asked companies to spend 100s of hours of their time preparing for a bid and didn’t even really intend to do the project.”
“After spending $32,000 to engineer the project, they only offered me $20,000 to help.”
As a final statement, Popp explained the 30-day public notice for the construction on the dam to raise the water level was also incorrect. “It shows incorrect elevations again. Let’s not do this all over again,” he said. “It says they are going to raise it .91 feet. The elevation is 498.52. They are going from 497.51. That is a difference of 1.01, not .91”
He then told Seger and the park board the Friends of Beaver Lake still want to discuss raising the fees at the lake to help pay to raise the water level at the lake. He also indicated those discussion should be postponed until after the Jasper Utility Service Board and Common Council could meet about the issues he had raised.
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“I am pretty disappointed that they accused us of covering stuff up,” Utilities Manager Bud Hauersperger said about Popp’s presentation. “Basically, every document he used was a public document.”
“We hired Morley and Associates to investigate this and find if the lake is lower and why the lake is lower,” Hauersperger said while indicating Popp wasn’t a licensed professional engineer. “They did a report and presented it publicly. They basically couldn’t come up with who made a mistake. You can’t just throw out accusations without hard evidence and if a professional engineer can’t come up with any hard evidence, you pretty much have to back off and say you don’t know.”
“With that gone [the old spillway], how can you prove what he said,” Hauersperger said.
To assist the Friends of Beaver Lake, Hauersperger said some discussion had taken place about the utilities giving them about $20,000. However, that has to be approved by the Jasper Utility Service Board.
According to Utility Service Board Chairman Rick Stradtner, the Jasper Utility Service Board has already paid $73,500 to investigate the lower water level and then create the plans to remedy the situation. In regards to the Morley and Associates investigation Stradtner said the board hired them as experts and believed their findings — which basically said they couldn’t find the exact reason the lake was lower — were correct.
The Jasper Park and Recreation Department had considered supplying about $15,000 to the project and then raising the rates for boat, dock and usage fees. The additional money from the fees would then be earmarked to paying back an interest-free loan from the city.
The utility board’s water committee will meet at 8 a.m. Thursday in the Pfaffenweiler Room at Jasper City Hall, 610 Main Street, to discuss Beaver Lake.
The next utility service board meeting is on Monday, August 17, at 7 p.m. Then, the city council meets on Wednesday, August 19, at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
The park board indicated they could schedule a special meeting to discuss the lake. That meeting could happen Tuesday morning, Aug. 18, if necessary.
A representative from Christopher Burke Engineering in Columbus was unavailable to speak at the time of this story’s publication. The story will be updated with their comments if they provide them.
