Big Bear Races Deadline to Repair Dam

The order issued last year by state dam safety officials was clear: repair the cracked and leaking 76-year-old dam here by Oct. 31 or the water level in the recreational lake in this year-round resort community would be drastically lowered.

The order came after a determination that a major earthquake could destroy the 82-foot-high multiarched structure and flood homes below in the Inland Empire communities of Mentone, Redlands and San Bernardino.

Now, with the deadline less than two months away, project engineers say they are at least two weeks behind schedule as construction crews work day and night to finish the job of shoring up the old dam with 14,600 cubic yards of concrete.

The approaching deadline has residents here worried because the lake provides the area’s major source of revenue.

Visitors Pump in $80 Million

Each year, 5 million people boat, fish, water-ski, sail and swim on Big Bear Lake, which is nestled in a 20-mile-long valley 6,800 feet above sea level. Without the estimated $80 million the visitors spend here each year, the local economy would collapse, residents and business owners said.

“Everything we do is tied to that lake,” said Jim Bollingno, 34, manager of Alpine Sports Center, a local sporting goods store. “We are praying the work gets done on time.”

“That beautiful lake is as important to us as rain and sunshine,” agreed Tom Core, president of the Big Bear Valley Historical Museum. “Everybody has their fingers crossed.”

“It’s nervous time,” said Ralph F. Walker, vice president of the Big Bear Municipal Water District, which owns the dam. “I’d be devastated if the state issues a draw-down order.”

Steve Verigan, field engineer for the state Department of Water Resources, said that if the project proceeds at its current pace “we are not going to say, ‘You didn’t make it, drain the lake.’ ”

However, he added, “If they don’t make it, we will want to evaluate why that is.”

Meanwhile, property owners, merchants and weekend visitors in this San Bernardino Mountain community of 14,000 permanent residents keep asking: “How’s the dam coming along?”

Big Bear Dam was built at a cost of $135,000 in 1912 to store water for citrus growers in Redlands. Over the years, the 73,000-acre lake it created became better known as a low-cost recreational resort for the 14 million people who now live within a two-hour drive of its shores.

Cabin on the Lake

Retired tool and die maker Romeo Burube, 74, of Glendora, who owns a small cabin on the north side of Big Bear Lake, said he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he couldn’t go there to fish.

“When it gets too hot in Glendora my wife comes up here to cool off--I go fishin’,” Burube said, as he angled for trout from the dock of a small marina. “Without the lake, I can’t see coming up here and twiddling my thumbs in the cabin.”

The prospect of losing the lake moved land owners here in March to vote overwhelmingly in favor of creating a local tax assessment district to help raise about $6 million of the $10.8 million needed to rebuild the dam. A state grant of about $5 million later was approved to make up the difference, said Janet McCord, spokeswoman for the Big Bear Municipal Water District.

The Kiewit Pacific Co. of Santa Fe Springs was awarded a contract in April to do the work. In May, its crew of 60 laborers began pouring concrete on the downstream face of the dam.

“At the time she was built, she was a state-of-the-art dam,” said Bill Parker, Kiewit’s project superintendent, sitting on a cliff overlooking the work site that is illuminated by floodlights after dark. “Now, she’s leaking pretty bad.”

Parker figured the dam will achieve peak strength about nine months after the last cubic yard of concrete is poured sometime in November. After that, he said, “There’s no reason she can’t last another 100 years.”

The first phase of construction included dredging tons of lake-bottom mud in front of the dam. “We found a lot of trash and a few boat anchors,” Parker said with a smile, “but none of the man-eating 40-foot catfish they say are in here. Just fishermen’s dreams, I guess.”

Project Faced Delays

Parker’s smile faded, however, when he recalled a series of setbacks that have stymied work on the dam. For example, he said, “It seemed like summer would never come. During the first week of work it snowed four inches and the temperature dropped to 27 degrees.”

In July, the Laborers and Hod Carriers Union went on strike for eight days when their contract expired. “That really worried us,” Parker said. “They took a walk and we were down for eight days.”

Last Tuesday, a machine that pumps concrete to the work site broke down after delivering a mere 15 cubic yards. That machine was replaced with standby equipment and the project was back on line Wednesday night when a citizens’ advisory committee toured the operation.

Thursday, the project lost another day of work when the batch plant, which produces concrete, broke down. Project engineers hoped to have that problem fixed by Monday.

Barring additional unforeseen problems, a dedication ceremony has been scheduled for Nov. 14 at the dam, and Gov. George Deukmejian is expected to give the keynote address.

“There will be one big sigh of relief when that last cubic yard of concrete is poured,” said Don Slider, a project engineer. “We’re going to have a party.”