US Army Corps Of Engineers To Hold Public Meetings For Possible Flooding Improvements At Keystone Lake

The US Army Corps of Engineers plans to hold two informational meetings next week about a plan to raise the height of Keystone Dam by 10.5 feet. The Corps says the plan will not change the normal level of the lake or the typical flow downstream.

The dam at Keystone holds back billions of gallons of water and prevents most flooding downstream, but the Army Corps believes an unprecedented flood could overtop the dam and put it at risk of damage.

“The whole purpose of this is public safety,” said Brannen Parrish, a spokesman for the Army Corps, Tulsa Division, “That’s to keep people safe and ensure that we're doing everything to ensure safety in the event of a historic flood.”

The project would involve rebuilding and raising both the concrete and earth portions of the dam, as well as State Highway 151, which would require detours during construction.

Parrish said the extra height and capacity would not be used in a flood more severe than any in the history of the lake, and only then if the lake level was rising while the gates were wide open.

“That would not change the operation, it wouldn't even change the flood pool of a structure because the only way we've use that 10 and a half feet would be in the event of a probable maximum flood,” said Parrish.

The Corps is taking comments now, and will for the next month, online. Two public informational meetings are next week, with the Corps encouraging people to submit responses and comments online so they can be included in an impact report.

Parrish says no decisions to do the project have been made, and any construction could be decades away - but the Corps wants to understand the impact of dam modifications while understanding the risk or alternately making no modifications. Parrish said during the operation of the dam, more people have moved into the path of potential downstream flooding, and 50 years of data indicates there could be more rainfall in the watershed than originally considered.

“That would be a flood event bigger than anything we've ever seen,” he said.

The Keystone Dam Safety Modification Study public comment period runs from March 6 to April 5. Public informational meetings take place on March 13 and 14 at Keystone State Park Community Center in Sand Springs.

Click here for more information on the study.