USDA says Trion Dam inspected every year

TRION, Ga. -- A 40-year-old dike that just wasn't tall enough to hold back the Chattooga River earlier this week has a last-inspection date of 2001 listed on the National Inventory of Dams, but USDA officials said Friday the dam is inspected every year.

Jimmy Bramblett, assistant state conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Resources Conservation Service in Athens, Ga., provided the Times Free Press with a copy of a dam inspection from Feb. 25, 2009.

"I'm not sure why it's not showing up (in the National Inventory of Dams)," Mr. Bramblett said.

"We assist (Trion city officials) with an inspection every year. And every five years we go out and do a more formal inspection report with an engineer," he said.

Mr. Bramblett said the February 2009 inspection was one of those formal, five-year reports.

Trion Mayor Benjamin Perry said Wednesday he didn't know who inspected the dikes. On Friday, when told that USDA is claiming to have inspected them yearly with Trion Public Works Director Waymon Blansit, Mr. Perry said, "That doesn't ring a bell to me."

Mr. Blansit could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

The National Inventory of Dams tracks only the formal every-five-year dam safety checks, whether they are inspected by states, federal agencies or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to Rebecca Ragon, the keeper of the dam inventory for the Corps of Engineers.

Neither she nor USDA officials could explain why there was a gap in posted inspections on the inventory, which was last updated in 2007.

Sheri Teems, USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service District Conservationist in Rome, Ga., said the Natural Resources Conservation Service -- formerly called the Soil Conservation Service -- designed and built three dikes in Trion.

One is 14 feet tall, one is 15 feet tall and one is 6 feet tall, according to the inventory, which lists 2001 as the last inspection dates for all three. The inventory also lists the USDA's Conservation Service as the source of the inspection information, but it does not list that agency as being responsible for the inspections.

"I don't know that we send anything to the Corps of Engineers," Ms. Teems said.

"We've continued the inspections over the years," she said, adding that the Conservation Service went back to Trion "three days ago" and inspected the dam again after the floods.

She said the dam did not breach and still is in good shape.

"The city of Trion has operations and maintenance responsibility (for the dikes), and they do a very good job," she said.

The North Georgia area received more than 10 inches of rain in the week prior to the flooding.

Ms. Teems said she doesn't know why there is a gap in the inventory about the inspections.

"I don't know why there's a disconnect," she said. "If the Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining the inventory, they should be responsible for keeping accurate data. The bottom line is that (it) wasn't correct."