Percy Quin dam work on track

MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) - Percy Quin State Park manager Will Busby says fishing may resume at Lake Tangipahoa as early as fall 2016 and as late as fall 2017.

The Enterprise-Journal reports (https://bit.ly/1gnO6pY ) that Busby told a civic club audience this week that Hurricane Isaac in 2012 caused the lake’s dam to break in two places. Officials closed the road across the dam to the other side of the lake where the group camp is located. The damage forced the lake to be drained.

As part of the completed first phase, the dam was filled to be five feet higher and 15 feet wider than the previous structure. Busby said Rip rap was placed on the front of the dam and concrete piping was installed for the bleeder valve. An emergency spillway was also dug at large clay banks to relieve pressure on the dam, Busby said. Large pumps drained water out of the lake.

“We’re in the second phase of the project. We’re building a new overflow dam and release valve,” Busby said. “The slurry ditch keeps any seepage from going through the dam, and that is done. The dam is going to be state of the art.

“We’re thinking that at the end of this month we’re hoping to have Phase 2 completed, and then we can put water in and drive across the lake,” Busby said, referring to tasks to come later during Phase 3. “We’re on schedule to stock the lake by March or April.”

He said it shouldn’t take long for the lake to fill back up with water.

Busby said Phase 2 includes restocking the lake in staggered steps. He said 250,000 bream are scheduled to be stocked first. He said putting in bass and catfish will follow a year later. That will be followed by white perch.

“It takes 2-1/2 to 3 years after stocking the lake to be able to fish again, and that is the fall of 2016,” Busby said. “My opinion is that the lake will be ready for fishing in the fall of 2017. But that’s just me.”

Busby said the third phase of the project is repair of the road across the dam.

“We’ve got $4 million in the overall project,” Busby said. “We’re looking at close to $6 million before it’s done.”

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Information from: Enterprise-Journal, https://www.enterprise-journal.com