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The National Weather Service is predicting possible thunderstorms later this week around the Bavarian-themed town of Leavenworth, Washington. That could cause the Eightmile Lake Dam above the town to fail.
And a simmering dispute between the local irrigation district and the U.S. Forest Service isn’t helping.
Eightmile Lake Dam sits in a federal wilderness area. But a local irrigation district owns the dam, which helps water fruit trees, grapes, pastures and yards.
“Yes, it’s an old dam and is it’s deteriorating. But the problem is that the dam was never designed to handle the amount of outflow that the watershed can produce at this point,” said Tony Jantzer, who manages the Icicle & Peshastin Irrigation District.