The long-drained Lake Perez, just over Pine Grove Mountain in Huntingdon County, may be fixed and refilling by spring 2013, a Penn State spokesman said Friday.
Penn State owns the 72-acre lake, in Barree Township. Part of the Stone Valley Recreational Area, the landmark was drained in 2008 after the discovery of structural deficiencies in its 50-year-old earthen dam.
As recently as August 2010, Penn State reported that the lake probably wouldn’t reopen until 2014. Identifying the dam’s problems, acquiring permits and completing the fix — then projected in the $3 million range — would be a tall order, especially during tough economic times, a university representative said then.
Reached Friday, though, spokesman Geoff Rushton said Penn State is pushing ahead with the repairs.
It’s looking ‘at installing improvements and mitigation measures to ensure the integrity of the dam,’ he wrote in an e-mail message. ‘This project would include embankment repairs, seepage monitoring pits, a grout curtain at the crest of the dam, seepage control trenches and other improvements.
‘Lake Perez would be refilled at completion. Tentatively, this project would be completed around the spring of 2013,’ Rushton went on.
Once the lakebed can hold water again, it’s expected to take one to three months for water to reach normal levels.
The university trustees are scheduled to hear an update about the lake property at their public meeting next week, scheduled for Friday at the Nittany Lion Inn. Rushton said Penn State plans to put the repair project out for bid by the end of 2011.
It hopes to begin construction in spring 2012, he said. Costs are projected in the $4.1 million range. Rushton said it appears that university reserve funds will be committed to the effort.
Reserve funds are restricted to facility repairs and improvements, he noted.
‘Stone Valley and Lake Perez, of course, present great opportunity for university education and programs, outreach and services for the community, and they are an important and positive environmental resource,’ Rushton wrote.
Earlier StateCollege.com coverage of the issues at Lake Perez is linked below.
Earlier coverage
