The Cork Center Storage Reservoir Dam is a 49-foot high by 460-foot long earth fill, hazard class C, embankment dam with a concrete core and impounds a reservoir with a surface area of approximately 41 acres. The dam was constructed across the valley containing Kecks Center Creek, a tributary to the Mohawk River. The confluence of Kecks Center Creek and the Mohawk River is approximately 7.5 miles southeast of the site in the Town of Fonda, New York.

The dam has a concrete intake tower located approximately 75 feet upstream of the upstream shoreline of the dam. The reservoir is approximately 30 feet deep at the tower. The intake tower houses the inlet of a 24-inch cast-iron pipe that directs water below the dam to a gatehouse located downstream of the dam.

McMahon & Mann and Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. completed a dam safety inspection for the dam and collected information for the Engineering Assessment Report. We 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. We used the information obtained from the geotechnical investigation provided the data to evaluate the seepage conditions and complete the stability analyses of the embankment.

McMahon & Mann prepared a Dam Safety Inspection Report and sections of the Engineering Assessment Report pertaining to geotechnical issues. We also identified deficiencies in the dam and prepared recommendations for remediation to bring the dam into compliance with current NYSDEC Guidelines.