By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — The Pleasant Lake Dam has been leaking because of cracks in the 80-foot long structure.

“Some of the cracks were letting a significant volume of water through. The bigger concern is that it was letting gravel through, which could further deteriorate the dam,” according to Casco Town Manager Dave Morton.

The problem is compounded because the dam is jointly-owned by the towns of Casco and Otisfield. Yet, neither town has money in the budget to fix the infrastructure.

However, the timing of discovering the problem with the dam coincides with an upcoming scheduled state inspection of the dam.

On Tuesday, Morton reported this recent finding to the Casco Board of Selectmen.

He said we would know more later in the week after the engineer inspects the infrastructure.

According to Morton, the new president of the Pleasant Lake-Parker Pond Association, Peter Barber, came into the town office and asked if there was a maintenance budget for the dam.

“The answer was no. There are no plans in place. There are no funds for that purpose,” Morton said.

Until the state engineer that reviews dams statewide looks at the Pleasant Lake structure, there are still some unknown factors.

Selectman Holly Hancock said, that “Otisfield owns half” of the dam, and asked if town officials there had been brought up to speed on the current situation.

“We have had an initial discussion with Otisfield and the selectmen. We obviously have no money set aside for it. We don’t know the cost,” Morton answered.

“The original plan was to put together a plan going forward after the process of doing that evaluation,” he said.

“We discovered there is leaking going on. We need to make sure it is not degrading the actual structure,” he said.

For now, the failure in the dam has not affected the water levels in Pleasant Lake.

“This year, we haven’t been able to let enough water out of the lake,” Morton said.