Arlington homeowners group says dam breach is causing erosion, property damage
North Arlington residents near the Prestonwood Lake are demanding the city compensate them for erosion caused after officials breached the system’s dam in late 2018.
Days before the city breached the private dam, officials warned the dam was in danger. Mayor Jeff Williams signed a disaster declaration stating the dam’s failure posed a threat to the city and officials must take “extraordinary measures” to minimize the risk.
But in a lawsuit filed Monday in Tarrant County, several residents with the Prestonwood Estates West Homeowners Association questioned the city’s action and attributed the dam’s condition to lackluster care of culverts upstream along Lamar Boulevard.
“There’s a series of missteps by the city, none of which they’re willing to admit,” said Bruce Hammond, the association’s president. “It goes back years.”
City staff, having just received word of the lawsuit, declined comment.
The dam and the lake are both private property, and the homeowners association is responsible for its upkeep. However, the suit claims that the city’s 1992 expansion of Lamar Boulevard caused silt deposits that made the once 20-foot-deep lake to become as shallow as 3 feet.
The homeowners also claimed that clogged culverts under Lamar Boulevard in September 2018 caused floodwaters to sweep away a vehicle that damaged the dam.
“Had the City properly maintained its stormwater system, this damage to the dam would likely not have occurred,” the suit states.
The Texas Center for Environmental Quality told homeowners they are responsible for fixing the dam. Meanwhile, the city has requested the Federal Emergency Management Agency update its floodplain map, which would require the homeowners to remove the lake system.
The water’s removal, Hammond said, would hurt property values, costing homeowners who moved to the area for its proximity to water. Hammond said before the lake and creek became shallow, people would fish and canoe on the property.
“This was like an interstate highway for animals,” he said. “We don’t have any of them much anymore.”
When officials breached the dam, residents also discovered a second sewer line was running through the body of water, the suit states.
By conservative measures, the city’s decision cost residents around $3 million, according to the lawsuit — an estimate that Hammond said has increased as time has passed. Erosion, he said, has eaten away at his and others’ backyards, toppled property walls and jeopardized the integrity of homes.
“The further we get out, the worse it is,” he said.
Attorneys Keith Bradley and Michael Hammond of Cleburne are listed on the lawsuit.
