The extra water is delaying Monday's work onthe dam itself. Once it goes down, a gate will be opened tolower the level in the Tar River reservoir even more.
"We'll do it deliberately. We'll do it for a period of time.The river will increase in elevation, but itcertainly ought to stay within its banks," says Paul Blount, Director of Water Resourcesfor Rocky Mount.
About five feet of water will be releasedover several days so crews can replace somemachinery, but no problems are expected.
Fisherman Carlton Winstead says the controlledrelease is not a big deal.
"Since the rain has stopped last week, it's gotten back into thebanks like it should be. It will get even lower than this," he says.
Once the water is lowered, the gate will stay down untilthe repairs are done sometime in May.If things go well, the reservoir will be filledup again by mid-summer.
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