LAKE DUNLAP

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority is investigating a failed spill gate at Lake Placid after it failed to operate on the heels of the recent flooding event.

Texas State District 17 Representative John P. Cyrier says he’s been fighting for a funding solution for the maintenance and repairs of the six dams in the Guadalupe Valley Lakes system.

The facelift of Lake Dunlap Dam has made some major progress since a spill gate failure in May 2019.

The project will replace the dam that failed two years ago.

Construction to restore a dam at Lake Dunlap has been approved exactly two years after a spill gate failure caused the lake to drop 7 feet.

Two years after a spill gate failure nearly emptied Lake Dunlap, contractors are now at work building a new dam with the goal of reviving the lake.

GUADALUPE VALLEY LAKES, Texas – A settlement has been reached in one of the court cases regarding Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and the property owners along the Guadalupe Valley lakes. The GBRA owns the six dams that create the Guadalupe Valley Lakes system and the waters within the lakes. Those lakes include Lake Dunlap, Lake McQueeny, Lake Placid, Meadow Lake, Lake Gonzales and Lake Wood. In August 2019, the GBRA announced that Lake Gonzales, Meadow Lake, Lake Placid and Lake McQueeney would be drained due to concerns over aging dams. Watch exact moment of partial dam failure at Lake DunlapLake Gonzales was expected to be dewatered first, followed by Meadow Lake, Lake Placid and Lake McQueeney.

Its been 149 days since the Lake Dunlap dam broke. Since then, the Preserve Lake Dunlap Association, which represents more than 600 property owners, has been working out a plan to get the dam fixed. We are going to form a water district among the front property owners, Harmon said. Lake Dunlap property owners have not sued the GBRA. Property owners at Lake McQueeney and Lake Placid have sued.

Lake Dunlap residents could get their waterside view back in just a few years, but it will cost them more property taxes. Copyright 2019 by KSAT - All rights reserved.

SEGUIN, Texas - A state review of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority identified problems related to what it said was poor management of the agencys aging infrastructure. The results of the Sunset Advisory Commission review were released in June, one month after part of a dam collapsed on Lake Dunlap, which was caught on camera. The Sunset review also noted that some of the authority's infrastructure is failing, either in critical condition or beyond repair." Following the dam failure on Lake Dunlap, the GBRA decided to drain Lake Gonzales, Meadow Lake, Lake Placid and Lake McQueeney over safety concerns that dams could fail on those lakes, too. The Sunset report, which focuses on the GBRA, also scrutinized the Red River Authority and Nueces River Authority.

A drop in property values would affect the budgets of local governments and school districts. The GBRA is scheduled to deliberately drain Lake Gonzales, Meadow Lake, Lake Placid and Lake McQueeney one-by-one beginning Sept. 16 because of safety concerns over their aging hydroelectric dams. Appraisal districts assign property values based on market activity. So if nobody wants to buy a home next to a mostly drained lake, there wouldn't be any data to prompt a change in the property values. Lake Dunlap: $271,746,135Lake Placid: $159,815,696Lake McQueeney: $582,538,951Meadow Lake: $63,515,589Total: $1,077,616,371Lake Gonzales and the previously drained Lake Wood are both in neighboring Gonzales County and are not included in the figures.

Two months after a dam failure led to the draining of Lake Dunlap, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority will consider purposely draining four more lakes due to safety concerns. Stinson said GBRA staff, including himself, will brief the board in public and in executive session on the concerns and issues related to the spill gates and lakes that are still in service. Dewatering the lakes, he said, would be "the main option" to deal with the concerns over public safety. If the GBRA goes forward with draining the lakes, it would happen "sooner rather than later," Stinson said. The GBRA board of directors will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the GBRA William E. West, Jr., Annex Building at 905 Nolan St. in Seguin.