Birmingham Water Works to spend $85 million to fix leaking dam

A dam that supplies one of the main sources of drinking water for the greater Birmingham area will undergo an $85 million renovation after years of leaking millions of gallons of water a day.

The Birmingham Water Works Board last week approved construction contracts for work on the century-old Lake Purdy Dam in Shelby County.

The board voted 7-1 to award a $78.7 million contract to Thalle Construction Company and $6.8 million in management fees to Arcadis, Schnabel and AG Gaston Construction.

“Our ultimate goal is always to make sure we’re providing safe, affordable, quality water to our customers,” water company President Tereshia Huffman told AL.com. “This dam is old, and it was time for us to make an intentional effort to make sure we could get the funding.”

Officials say the project will improve the dam’s structural stability and address water leaks in its foundation.

Water officials have been debating the need for repairs to Lake Purdy Dam for years.

In 1980, the dam leaked about 1.5 million gallons a day, according to old water works board meeting minutes. The leaking accelerated rapidly between 2018 and 2019, reaching about 7.6 million gallons a day, water works records say.

At the time, engineers estimated it would cost between $75 million and $100 million to rebuild the dam.

A failure in the structure would prevent the water treatment plant from supplying water to the south end of the system, engineers told the board in 2019.

The major repair project is scheduled to begin in November and last until April 2028.

The work will involve removing trees, building new roads to support construction trucks and diverting water at the dam.

Crews will make two miles of road improvements from Highway 119 near the Brook Highland neighborhood to the dam site to support construction traffic.

Funding for the project comes from a federal loan that was awarded in August. The water works received a $171 million loan from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.

The water works will also use some of the money to replace lead service lines, which are pipes that connect homes and businesses to water mains. Replacing lead pipes is an important step in reducing the risk of lead exposure.

Lake Purdy is a major source for the water works. The other is Inland Lake in Blount County.

George Munchus was the only board member who voted against funding the dam project. Munchus said he did not vote to approve the contracts because no one at the water treatment plant answered his questions about engineering and design or previous estimates for dam repairs.

In an email to the interim general manager of water works, Munchus asked when the utility initially discussed the dam rehabilitation, previous cost estimates and details about the minority stake in the construction project.

During last week’s board meeting, Munchus raised those issues again. But he was rebuffed by Huffman and Mark Parnell, the board’s attorney.

Munchus is suing his fellow board members, accusing them of violating Alabama’s open records law by withholding detailed information about legal expenses from him.

“I hate the tension because a lot of the questions that all board members ask are valid,” Huffman told AL.com later. “But I think sometimes who introduces something becomes more of a priority than ‘how is this a value to our customers.’”