Outreach and engagement activities included informational letters mailed to lakeshore-homeowners and two public information meetings in May 2025—one in Morris for Perkins Lake and one in Elbow Lake for Pomme de Terre Lake—where project partners presented the rock arch design, explained anticipated water level responses, and addressed landowner questions and concerns.
Additional field survey work was needed at Perkins Lake because the outlet had been illegally modified between 2011 and 2012, raising the effective runout elevation roughly 0.6 feet above the authorized elevation and requiring updated elevation control and hydraulic analysis. Using new survey and FEMA/USACE hydrologic data, Houston Engineering completed design reports and detailed construction plans featuring 3 percent rock ramps, five rock arches at Perkins Lake, and eight rock arches at Pomme de Terre Lake, each with 2‑foot-deep pools and berms to contain flow and protect banks. By July 2025, construction specifications were finalized and the bid package for the Pomme de Terre River Dam Modifications was advertised.
The Water Level (Perkins Lake)
Public Waters Work Permits for both Perkins Lake and Pomme de Terre Lake were submitted in April and subsequently authorized. The permits documented that authorized runout elevations would be maintained through lowflow channels and carefully designed rock arch crests, that modeled stage changes remain under about 1.5 inches across most flow conditions, and that no FEMA floodplain map revisions are anticipated. In June 2025, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed federal authorization under Nationwide Permit 27, and by September, Findings of Fact and Operations & Maintenance Plans were finalized to support permit issuance and longterm structure management by DNR divisions.
