Today was a big day. Pardon the long post, but it seems appropriate on a day like today to mark the moment.
The gates on the Lake Dunlap dam started rising today, following a planned procedure that will step them up over time, and brings to a formal close the process that we all started 1,571 days ago when the dam collapsed on May 14, 2019.
The video captured that day has been seen all over the world. There has been interest in our incredibly unique project from all over the US, but also Europe and South America.
Speaking for me personally, as I watched the gates rise ever so slowly for the first time that was not a test, I felt an incredible sense of relief.
There has not been one of those 1,571 days when I did not devote some part of my day to our dam, our lake, or our situation. I am not unique in this. J Harmon has been on this from the start and he and I have spoken almost daily for most of those many days. After I came on as part of the project leadership, he and I began to recruit others to help formulate plans as the Lake Dunlap Advisory Board. Several of those ultimately became part of the WCID board and technical advisory team. All of us made the commitment to get this done. We were all in, all of us.
We had so many mountains to climb. In the earliest days we were learning just as fast as we could. It was a lot and we did not always get it right, but we persevered till we did at every step.
We had to have a plan. We did that.
Then we needed to create a WCID - a branch of government with taxing authority. No small lift. We did that.
Then we needed to win elections in two counties and a city independently. So many ways we could have fallen short. But we did that.
Then we needed to raise the money — $40 million. We did that, too.
And then we finally could start working to actually restore the dam. That part alone has taken nearly 2 ½ years.
Today, 1,571 days after we lost our lake, we can finally say, yes, we saw that part through to the end, too!
All of the many people who have devoted so much time to making this happen feel that sense of relief. All of us were all in. Everyone stepped up when called. It was like nothing I have ever been a part of. We live in a truly amazing community.
Everything needed to make this happen from GBRA, from Zachary, from the WCID, and from all of you that live on this lake and voted for A, B, and C — all that all fell into place.
And now, we have a functional dam again.
Today is a very big deal.
It took so many people to make this happen, and there were so many points that most communities would have given up. But we didn't.
Thanks to all of you who voted to make this happen by taxing yourselves to get our lake back. That is an incredible and enduring commitment. Keeping you in the forefront of our thinking is the WCID's most important job.
Thanks to the PLDA who stepped up to build this plan, holding town meetings, working diligently to get the facts into the hands of the taxpayers and residents, and working with a group of civic leaders on the Lake Dunlap Advisory Board, all of whom are still engaged at one level or another. That transparency and inclusiveness set the tone for us to win the election.
Thanks to our Neighborhood Captains who worked in the middle of COVID to get information out to residents in small-group "BYO lawn chair" meetings and strive to factually answer questions their neighbors had.
Thanks to the our WCID board, who have devoted three years and counting toward this. Several of those board members have been part of this effort from the earliest days.
Thanks to GBRA for believing in our plan, and to the Texas Water Development Board for giving us a near-zero interest rate.
Thanks to Zachary for delivering our new amazing modern dam. It is built to last for generations.
Now what we need is rain.
That is the last thing holding us back. Even if rain eludes us, with time, the water will return.
I was lucky to be in the control house today when the moment came to raise the gates once and for all. There were a couple of small crowds gathered below the dam and on Lakeside pass, looking through the fence to also mark the moment our dam was back.
The readout in the control room showed the gates slowly rising in 1/10 ft increments. (The command to raise the gates actually came from GBRA's offices in Seguin! No one had to touch anything in the control room at the dam.)
And just like that, not like the bang when it dewatered explosively, but more with the whir of a well-tuned machine — the Lake Dunlap dam is back!
Larry Johnson