The day the Crystal Lake dam breached

Virginia Gilbert was awakened in the middle of the night by what she described as a “strange noise.”

“I got up and looked out the window. I could see the flood water rushing down the street. It was three feet high, maybe more,” she said. “The water flooded our first floor about two feet deep. It pushed a tree through a window and smashed the front veranda. Then another tree smashed another window.”

That was 1961, the year the Crystal Lake dam breached. There were no deaths, but the story remains apocryphal in the area along the Prout Brook in Middletown, into which Crystal Lake feeds.

A couple went away on their honeymoon and returned to find the lake emptied. Boulders were tossed around like pebbles. This property was only touched by the four-foot-high wall of water. That property was completely destroyed.

News reports described residents clinging to fences while floodwaters threatened to drag them downstream.

“People in houses across the street climbed up on their roofs. I just prayed the houses wouldn’t be washed away,” Gilbert told the Associated Press in 1961. “We were lucky, we had a second floor, but they had only one floor.”

The Crystal Lake dam, if it breached again, could cause significant loss of life and property damage, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.

That investigation identified at least 1,680 dams nationwide — 12 in Connecticut — that are rated as high-hazard because of the potential for loss of life if they failed and are considered to be in poor or unsatisfactory condition.

The Crystal Lake dam is classified as a “class C” dam, the highest hazard rating in the state, because of the potential loss of life should it breach. It’s owned by the state, like 75 percent of the 3,043 dams regulated by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Repair negotiations

Chuck Lee, who works for DEEP as assistant director of the Lakes Management Program, pointed out that the dam that breached in 1961 is no longer there. It was rebuilt in 1966 and repaired again in 1990, according to a 2016 state inspection.

“The dam is not structurally unsound,” Lee said. “I wouldn’t say we’re scared about this one.”

There’s been a dam on the site since the mid-1800s, according to the 2016 inspection, “in order to impound a reservoir of water for use at mills located further downstream and operated by the Russell Manufacturing Co.”

Russell owned the dam until it breached in 1961, when ownership was transferred to the state.

In the 1990s, an outlet pipe was found to be fully plugged with debris, which had subsequently frozen over with ice and completely blocked the flow of water.

“As had previously occurred in the winter of 1996, this created an emergency situation, as water levels in the lake were rising toward the top of the embankment,” the inspection said.

The current dam, consisting primarily of an earth embankment about 140 feet long and 50 feet high, is not in terrible shape, according to the state, though everyone agrees it should be upgraded.

“It’s high on our priority list of our state dams,” Lee said.

Tina Loomis, a member of the Crystal Lake Improvement Association — which formed in the 1930s to bring electricity to lakeside cottages — said we were told at our annual meeting in September that they weren't worried about it breaking down the way before.”

“They made it sound like there it isn’t anything to worry about,” she said. “I hope we weren't sold a bill of goods. We were just very lucky that no one was killed back in 1961.”

The state owns the dam but the land on which the dam sits and a long stretch of the Prout Brook’s northern bank is owned by the Polish Falcons of America, a fraternal organization based in Pennsylvania.

“They’ve owned the land, probably coming up on 100 years,” said Phil Zambrello, president of the Polish Falcons of America nest 519 in Middletown.

While DEEP doesn’t consider the dam unsound, there are plans to upgrade. The spillway — a long, underground pipe that drains Crystal Lake into Prout Brook — will be extended 30 feet. The dam itself will increase in height by 1 foot, and the embankment will be made a less-steep slope covered in grass instead of the grouted riprap — stone embedded in concrete — that’s there now.

Those plans were drafted by an engineer in 2017, but negotiations between the state and the Polish Falcons have stalled the operation. The state bought some land on the south side of the water but, according to Zambrello, asked to be deeded a piece of the Falcons’ property for construction and maintenance of the dam.

“They asked us to deed them the property,” he said. “They asked for the entire waterfront. That’s not something we’re willing to do.”

While Zambrello and the Falcons “certainly want to ensure that it gets completed so that our neighbors do not suffer any loss that a failure would present,” they are concerned about property rights.

The buildings on the property are rented out for weddings, and the view, Zambrello said, is a primary reason.

“We do however hope to maintain our current property and beautiful views after the project has been completed,” he said.

As it stands now, the state is pursuing “a mutual exchange agreement” with the Polish Falcons, according to an email sent to the Polish Falcons by Daniel Biron, DEEP’s project manager.

“Due to the state’s limited funding we have to put this work off till next fall (2020),” Biron said.