City of Flint working to bring Kearsley Reservoir’s water level up after three-foot drop

The City of Flint stopped a leak in the Kearsley Reservoir in the early hours of the morning after the water level dropped more than 3 feet overnight. Thursday evening, City of Flint Water staff were releasing water through the South Lift Gate at the reservoir to prevent flooding from Hurricane Beryl’s heavy tropical rains, when the gate became clogged with debris and could not be completely lowered.

City of Flint crews and equipment were onsite at the Kearsley Reservoir this morning and were able to dislodge the debris that was stuck under the gate and tamp it down. This was too dangerous to attempt in the dark overnight.

Since Saturday, July 6, the City of Flint has been working to fix a leak in the Kearsley Dam’s Sluice Gate, which caused the Kearsley Reservoir to drop about one foot last weekend. By Tuesday, the City of Flint was able to make a temporary modification that completely stopped the leak in the dam, but the Sluice Gate still requires repairs.

The City has brought in Fischer Contracting to assess the dam and develop a plan for repair. Fisher arrived Tuesday for a preliminary assessment of the dam and is working to bring in a dive team to go underwater and see what is causing the Sluice Gate to not close all the way.

This is being treated as an emergency repair because the Sluice Gate is very important for controlling the Kearsley Reservoir’s water level through automation from the Water Treatment Plan operation center. The Sluice Gate is used to release excess water during heavy rain to prevent the reservoir from flooding.

This problem arose at a challenging time as the Water Treatment Plant dealt with the tropical rains from Hurricane Beryl this week. The Water Treatment Plant constantly monitors the water levels in the Kearsley Reservoir, Holloway Reservoir, Thread Lake, Flint River, and smaller creeks in the City of Flint, and can normally adjust the water levels remotely.

However, since the Sluice Gate at the Kearsley Reservoir has been out of service because of the needed repair, staff have had to manually make dam adjustments by using large lift gates since the heavy rains began Tuesday evening.