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Lake Moraine Dam
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The Lake Moraine (Madison Reservoir) Dam is owned by the State of New York under the jurisdiction of the New York State Canal Corporation (NYSCC). The dam is located in the Town of Madison in Madison County. Payne Brook extends south from the dam meandering through the eastern portion of the Village of Hamilton eventually discharging into the Chenango River. The dam was constructed in 1836 as a source of water for the Chenango Canal. It is an earth fill dam approximately 1400 feet long with a maximum height of 56 feet. The dam is composed of two separate sections that abut near the center at a natural hill. The easterly section is 800 feet long and has a maximum height of approximately 56 feet. The westerly section is 600 feet long with a maximum height of 36 feet. There is now extensive recreational use of the reservoir by the residences along the shore of the reservoir created by the dam.
Bergmann Associates and McMahon & Mann teamed to complete a dam safety inspection and engineering assessment for the dam in 2014, as required by NYCRR Part 673.16. McMahon & Mann completed subsurface explorations and laboratory and field tests to measure the properties of the foundation soil and the groundwater levels in the embankment. The subsurface work included installing standpipe piezometers in the embankment soils to allow measurements of the groundwater level in the dam fill at various times of the year. The information obtained from the geotechnical investigation provided the data used to evaluate the seepage conditions and complete the stability analyses of the embankment.
Bergmann and McMahon & Mann prepared an Engineering Assessment Report that included the results of the safety inspection, the hydrologic and hydraulic analyses, the stability and seepage analyses and identified deficiencies in the dam. The report presented conceptual recommendations for remediation to bring the dam into compliance with current NYSDEC Guidelines.