Relief wells easing pressure on levee system

By Chris Fortune

It’s not a result of dredging, but Lake Contrary is filling with water again.

Buchanan County Commissioner Ron Hook and a couple of workers cleared 34 relief wells last week at Lake Contrary with a mini excavator as water levels in the Missouri River continued to rise.

“If you go down now, I think you’ll see a difference in the volume of water that’s in the lake,” Hook said. “Of course you’ll still see the weeds. It’s not above the weeds by any means.”

Water had already seeped out of the wells, but it began to rush out once the excavator cleared the outlets of silt, soil, rock and weeds.

“What that means to us is the relief wells are working,” Hook said. “They’re doing what they’re supposed to do.”

The president of the Lake Contrary Association said some relief well discharge tubes were under at least a foot of silt.

“That is another advantage of having the lake dredged,” Ethel Catron said. “We won’t have to worry about those discharge tubes getting silted in as bad.”

While many nearby residents support dredging for lake activities, Catron said helping with flood control is the lake’s primary feature.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast moderate flooding along the Missouri River Wednesday with a crest over 22 feet.

“A lot of people have said, ‘We need the recreation, we need the recreation,’” Catron said. “Yes, that is fine, but first and foremost, this is for flood control.”