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The RRHA has been working to reduce flooding for over 10 years. We have raised private funds for USGS Gauge at the dam that included 1 year maintenance. We worked to create BrokenDamRockford.com to inform the community of problems with the dam and get ComEd to start the repair process. We worked with the Sheriff on a daily basis to get the gates adjusted on the dam when the gauge showed ComEd out of spec.
The attention that Rock River Flooding brought to USGS made them do some research and discover that the yearly maintenance fees had not been paid for by anyone at the dam gauge. The gauge is now off at the dam. The cost to turn it back on is $5,500 per year. I will put up the first $250 toward this fund. With all of the followers on your Facebook page we should have no problems raising the rest of the money. How much can we count on from you Barry?
Without the gauge at the dam working it doesn’t matter what the color chart at Latham is reset to. Anyone wanting to contribute to the gauge at the dam can send their checks to RRHA, PO Box 2813,Loves Park IL 61132-2813. Flooding has been occurring on the Rock River for hundreds of years.
The way to help reduce the length & severity is to have the water level at the dam maintained in a proactive manner. This can only be done by knowing what the current daily level is at the dam. I was sent one of Barry’s posts back in December where he said that the river has been flooding more since this gauge was installed and we would be better off with the gauge turned off. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Thank You & Regards Steve Lucas