PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Many of the residents who live around Lake Montclair are seeing a first — the lake bottom.
Work on a $1.2 million project to improve the spillway at the lake’s dam at Dolphin Beach, one of the tallest earthen dams in the state, is about to get underway. The capacity of the spillway needed to be improved and brought up to state code.
Essentially, not enough water was flowing through the opening of the dam.
Twenty-two feet of water was drained from the lake prior to the start of the project to accommodate a 100-year rainstorm should one occur during the construction work, said Montclair Property Owners Association Manager Justin Field.
The project should take between four and six months to complete.
“If you want to see what lake looks like when it is completely drained, this is the time,” said Rene Fry, who sits on the Prince William County Planning Commission and lives in Montclair. “If you go down to [the South Lake section of Montclair] townhouse you can see about two-thirds of the lake, and you just stand there and shake your head, and say ‘holy shit.”
So far, only a small rowboat has been uncovered in the mud and muck of the drained lake, said Field.
It’s likely the lake won’t be restored in time for the early summer swimming season. Field said the property owners association didn’t want to repair the spillway during winter in the event the ground froze, thawed, and froze again, potentially causing the land to be unstable.
The Montclair Property Owners Association spent $70,000 to design the new spillway, a portion of the total project cost. State officials reimbursed half of the design cost to the property owners association as part of a grant.
