Fayette County public works project designed to

improve the flow of Sandy Creek under Sandy Creek

Road may have had the opposite effect, causing

Lake Bennett on Ga. Highway 54 to dry up,

according to a state Department of Natural

Resources official.

But

Fayette County public works director Lee Hearn

begs to differ.

new culvert designed to move more water under the

bridge at Sandy Creek Road is three to four

inches higher than the old one, said Paul Jones,

fisheries technician with DNR.

The

new, larger culvert is designed to handle the

creek's flow much better than the old one during

heavy rains, solving a long-standing flooding

problem. But now the problem is just the

opposite, according to Jones. There's not enough

flow in the creek to reach the pipe, and water

that should be running into the lake is backing

up behind the bridge, he said.

Not

so, said Fayette's Hearn. "We told the DNR

when they talked to us about it that we didn't

hold the flow up at Sandy Creek at all,"

said Hearn. "The new culvert is at basically

the same elevation as the old one."

"At

this point it may not help much, but it won't

hurt anything either to have it running like it

used to," said Jones.

About

400 acres form a drainage basin that funnels

water into the creek at the point where it runs

under the bridge, he said. "There's an awful

lot of water backed up there," he added.

Hearn

said the new culvert was built using Georgia

Department of Transportation funds, and was

inspected by the DOT and built according to state

standards. He doubts that the state DNR could

force the county to modify the bridge without

proof. "You'd have to have some pretty

strong evidence," he said.

Hearn

also pointed out that Sandy Creek is not the only

one feeding Lake Bennett. Whitewater and Tar

creeks also drain into the lake, bolstered by

hundreds of acres of wetland north of the lake.

It's

possible, though, that removing one source of

water, Sandy Creek, was enough to dry up the lake

even with Whitewater still flowing, Jones

insisted. The combination of drought, leaks in

the dam that holds back Lake Bennett, and

stopping the flow of Sandy Creek may be more than

enough, he said.

He

was surprised at first that residents or the

owners of the dam haven't called sooner to seek

the state's help, Jones said, but added that the

problem probably seemed to happen overnight from

residents' perspective.

It

probably has taken a lot longer than residents

realize for the lake to empty out, he added. In

the early stages, water levels drop slowly

because the water is in a flatter, wider area of

the lake. After a certain point, when it drops

into the narrower, deeper center, the visual

effect is dramatic, he said.

"When

it gets out of the flats, it goes in a

hurry," he said.

Hearn

speculated that the leaks in the dam may have

worsened in recent months. "That dam could

be leaking a little bit more than it's leaked in

the past." Combined with the reduced flow of

water into the lake because of the drought, that

could empty the lake, he said.

Or

a farmer upstream may be damming one of the

creeks to irrigate crops, he suggested.

"Other

than that, I'm at a loss," he said.

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