MNR opts to rebuild Footprint dam

Area residents, especially those with property on Despair, Jackfish, or Footprint lakes northwest of Fort Frances, can breathe a sigh of relief.
Water levels will remain where they are as the Ministry of Natural Resources announced last week it has decided to rebuild rather than decommission the dam on Footprint Lake.
“We certainly looked at the comments from the public and it was quite overwhelming that people wanted the dam reconstructed,” said Linda Chepil of the local MNR office.
“Decommissioning was not a preferred alternative,” she noted.
“There will be a lot of happy people to hear that,” said Gerry Lambert, a concerned citizen who dropped by the Times office with a letter from the MNR announcing the decision.
A decision on the Esox Lake dam is still pending the review of comments and continuing environmental assessments.
An assessment of the Footprint and Esox dams led to discussions on their future earlier this year. The MNR held an open house here in January that attracted a large number of people who wanted to voice their concerns.
“[The decision] took a little bit longer than we had anticipated, but we had to go through all the comments,” Chepil said.
“We feel confident in the decision we have made,” she concluded.
The dams in question were the Esox Lake dam on the Manitou River and the one on the southern end of Footprint Lake. Both are in such a state of disrepair that something had to be done with them.
Four options were considered: decommissioning, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and doing nothing.
In a letter from the MNR dated March 20, which was sent to affected property owners and those who attended the open house in January, it was explained the Footprint dam would be reconstructed.
Pending a 30-day review of the Footprint project, during which anyone concerned with the project plan or environmental impact of the new dam can voice their concerns, construction will begin this summer.
“The decision has been made,” Chepil said. “So unless something totally new that wasn’t already considered is brought up, the reconstruction will continue.”
The cost of the project is estimated at $1.346 million.
“The rehabilitation costs were very similar to the reconstruction costs because you still have to put in the cofferdam,” noted Chepil. “All the things that are going to cost still need to be done.”
But she added the ministry is getting “more bang for their buck” since a new dam will last longer than a rehabilitated one.
The new dam will be built in two pieces on either side of an island. It will consist of a new reinforced concrete gravity structure consisting of two stop log bays and an overflow ogee weir at the south location, and just an overflow ogee weir at the north one.
While construction of a cofferdam—used to create a dry work environment at the dam site—upstream will be delayed until after spawning season (June 15), other preparation work will begin as soon as the job has been tendered and a contractor selected.
The “water work” hopefully will be complete by Sept. 15 so as not to disturb fish movement.
“That’s the plan,” said Chepil, though warning that construction could be delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. “Given nature, you never know what the weather is going to be like.”
People with cabins or property in the area shouldn’t be affected by the construction, she noted. “It shouldn’t affect any land owners, and it’s going to keep the water levels at normal levels.”
Chepil said other things being taken into consideration during construction will be the maintaining of flow downstream as well as a sediment and erosion plan designed to mitigate the impacts of the work.