Message from DNR

For those of you who do not know me, I am the new DNR Dam Safety Engineer for the Rock River Basin who replaced Sue Josheff. Sue is my supervisor.

As you can imagine with all of the snow on the ground we have been contacted a great deal about the potential for flooding this spring. We have been contacted by individuals, emergency management, as well as legislators.

I have been asked to request that dam owners/operators communicate with one another to try and have the best operation possible at their dam. It is my understanding that generally communication is not an issue when a gate change is made, so please continue this. If you hear from the dam upstream of you that they have changed their gate configuration and it does not require you to change your configuration or if you are already completely open, please pass this information on to the dam downstream of you.

We realize that if conditions are bad and we have rapid melting or heavy rain that there will likely be some flooding, but if everyone is operating their dam the best they can the questions after the flooding will be easier to answer.

I know that some of you are operators, some are owners, some have requested to be the contact for all correspondence regarding the dam, and some are the only contact information that I have for a dam, so if you could please pass this information on to the person or people who should have it I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for your continued cooperation.

Rob Davis
P Robert R. Davis, P.E.
Water Management Engineer
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - South Central Region
3911 Fish Hatchery Road
Fitchburg, WI 53711
(() phone: (608) 275-3316
(() fax: (608) 275-3338
(+) e-mail: robert.davis@wisconsin.gov
____________________________________________________

Thank you Rob-

And just an FYI; the 6 slide gates and 2 wicket gates at the Indianford Dam have been 100% open for nearly a full year, with a few exceptions mid-summer 2007.

Brian Christianson
Chairman, Rock-Koshkonong Lake District (www.RKLD.org)
608-884-9444