San Marcos — The 2006 transformation of the collapsing Rio Vista Dam into a whitewater park has earned the city of San Marcos the 2007 “Municipal Excellence Award for Management Innovations” from the Texas Municipal League.

The honor recognizes the city for transforming a collapsing low water dam in 2005-2006 into a whitewater park with three sets of falls on the San Marcos River.

A unique collaboration of the city, state and federal agencies, contractors and residents turned a potential disaster – a collapsing dam – into a city triumph, the TML citation said.

Mayor Susan Narvaiz, Council members John Thomaides and Daniel Guerrero, City Manager Dan O’Leary and other city staff were on hand at the TML annual conference in Dallas to accept the award.

San Marcos competed in the category of cities with more than 25,000 population.

“This honor belongs to our citizens, city staff, council members, state and federal agencies, and contractors who worked so hard on the Rio Vista project,” Mayor Narvaiz said. “The creativity and incredible dedication of everyone involved turned a bad situation into a huge success.”

The possible demise of the century-old Rio Vista Dam made its emergency repair crucial to the economic well being of San Marcos, as well as the quality of the river, city officials said.

As city leaders considered possible solutions, citizens urged them to “think outside the box.” Instead of just repairing the dam, why not transform it into a beautiful whitewater park?

After detailed discussions, the city council embraced the idea and put emergency funds in place. The transformation project, completed in 47 days, also improved the critical habitat for aquatic species in the river, including two endangered species, officials said.

After Olympic kayaker Ben Kvanli discovered serious cracks in the dam in November 2005, the City Council began considering options for repair. By December, the council agreed to find the resources to transform the aging dam into a whitewater park. The permitting process with state and federal agencies and design work by engineers began in January 2006, with plans completed by March.

The $1.9 million project took 6,500 people-hours of work after construction started on April 5, 2006. Contractors designed and built two port-a-dams to divert the river flow down two big diversion pipes stretching 380 feet down river.

With the help of biologists, firefighters and other volunteers, hundreds of fish, prawns, crawfish, turtles and other aquatic species were relocated as the area around the dam was de-watered.

Some 4,100 tons of rock were brought in to repair the dam, create two drop structures below Rio Vista, and build terraces along the banks.

Workers beat the construction goal of finishing by Memorial Day weekend 2006 by two days.

Agencies contributing to the project included U.S Fish & Wildlife, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, U.S. Corps of Engineers, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and the Texas State University Department of Archaeology.

Engineers and contractors who designed and built the project were Recreation Engineering and Planning, Boulder, Co.; Halff Associates, Dallas; Kellogg Brown & Root, Houston; Texas Sterling, San Antonio; Fugro Consultants LP of Austin and Greenway Enterprises, Austin.

The Texas Municipal League is a voluntary association of more than 1,200 Texas cities. The largest organization of its kind in the nation, TML’s primary objective is to serve the needs and advocate the interests of Texas cities. The City of San Marcos is a member of TML.