According to local officials, FEMA will decide this week if it will fund the repairs to the Twin Lakes Dam near Villa Rica, which was damaged in last September’s floods. Should FEMA not fund the repairs, it would force the county to either pay for the $1 million reconstruction project or drain one of the lakes permanently, to the chagrin of nearby residents.

The dam, which is actually Twin Lakes Road that runs on the far side of the smaller of the two lakes, suffered significant damage when flood waters from storms on Sept. 20 and 21 completely washed out the spillway and ripped a portion of the road from its embankment, rendering the dam unstable. Since then, crews have nearly completely drained the lake but recent rains have since filled it almost completely. A pump was initially set up to keep the water level low, thereby reducing the strain on the damaged dam. Because of the delays and the ultimate cost of the pump – the county spent $180,000 on pumping alone – the decision was made to install a pipe for the water to drain.

The problem with the dam largely stems from the fact that when the road was modified from its original use as a railway, silt from the lake was used to widen the road and provide a base for the road itself. That silt washed away in the flooding, and in order to secure the dam much of the remaining silt that the road rests upon would need to be exchanged for clay and other more resolute materials.

County Attorney Cynthia Daley said FEMA has been hesitant to fund anything beyond the repairs to the road, though recommendations from Georgia Safe Dams, a branch of the Environmental Protection Division, suggest that major work beyond road repairs needs to be performed for the dam to be secure. Estimates put the cost of that work at roughly $1.2 million, an amount that commission Chairman Bill Chappell has previously said the county is not in a position to spend out of pocket, which would, in turn, force the county to simply drain the lake. To this point, FEMA has only agreed to pay $36,000 for the road work.

In recent days, residents have organized in an effort to encourage FEMA to fund the project, with 23 residents signing a petition saying that repairs to the road alone simply won’t cut it, said David Obenauer, whose grandparents established the subdivision in the 1970s.

“We’re not interested in any options that don’t include full restoration. Twin Lakes is a community of two lakes, not one lake and a mud hole,” he said.

FEMA has said they will render a decision this week. Should they decide against funding the dam repair, there will likely be an appeal, Obenauer said, if not future litigation.