County leaders address next plan for Oktibbeha County Lake

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The dam at the Oktibbeha County Lake continues to be a growing concern for county leaders and residents.

During its board meeting on Tuesday, supervisors discussed draining the lake, which is now a top priority.

Oktibbeha County Fire coordinator Kirk Rosenhan said they want to drain it just below the soft spots in the dam itself.

The discovery of a mudslide last week and a potential breach of the levees prompted county leaders to issue a voluntary evacuation, and bring in pumps to begin pumping water out of the lake.

“They’re doing more than what we thought and what we expected,” said Kristen Campanella, Oktibbeha County EMA Director. “We were expecting around 25,000 gallons per minute, I think we’re hitting around 50,000 gallons per minute.”

The water levels have since gone down roughly four feet since last week.

However, during a presentation to the board of supervisors, Rosenhan said an additional four to five feet of water still needs to be pumped out of the lake before it can be drained.

“The dam is leaking but it’s not leaking all the way at the bottom of it,” Rosenhan explained. “We’re going to reduce the lake level down to a specified level as per the county engineer, that way they can go ahead and modify that intake structure, then we can keep the lake down. At this point, it’s too high and water won’t go in it.”

EMA director Kristen Campanella said this should take roughly two weeks to complete, but admits, the upcoming rainfall could push things back.

“Last we heard, every half-inch that we get is four feet added to the lake, so of course we’ll be monitoring that,” the ema director expressed.

Ever since the problems surfaced, the county has been downgraded from a warning to a watch status.

At this time, the mudslide appears to be stabilized.

While county leaders continue working to lower the water levels, the roads just north of Riviera Road to just south of Walter Bell Road will continue to be closed.

“We’re making excellent progress,” said Rosenhan. “I’ve got six pumps and up to four siphons working right now 24/7. We redid some of our piping yesterday and it greatly enhanced the flow rate.”

Campanella said the county signed a local proclamation for the January 11th storm.

Now they’re hoping to have the governor sign off on it and issue a state of emergency declaration, followed by a presidential declaration.