LANEXA -- Last summer, a breach in Walkers Dam lowered water levels on Chickahominy Lake so much that the slips at Eagles Landing marina couldn't be used and some rental boats had to be hauled back in from a sandbar.

Business owners on the lake side of the dam near the New Kent-Charles City counties line are more optimistic this summer after surviving one of the worst years in recent memory for fishing tournaments, boat rentals and campground business.

Still, there are lingering concerns about water levels and a broken boat lock, which won't be operational for two more years.

Representatives of the dam's owner, Newport News Waterworks, say they have finished the first phase of repairs and plan to begin a second phase next spring.

At a cost of up to $12 million, the second and final phase will replace the boat lock and complete the rehabilitation of the dam. Officials say the work will be done in the fall of 2010.

"The emergency is over, and we've gotten the breach fixed, and we've stabilized the dam," said Lee Ann Hartmann, spokeswoman for Newport News Waterworks.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Walkers Dam in 1943 to secure a water supply for the shipyard and military operations during World War II. The dam keeps salty water from flowing from the Chickahominy River into the lake. The lake provides drinking water to Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson and parts of York and James City counties.

The dam breached in April 2007, Hartmann said, and the boat lock collapsed a month later. With water flowing through the dam, the lake became part of the river's tidal system.

Water in the lake got so low that that grass choked out the motors of boats rented out by Eagles Landing and Ed Allen's Boats and Bait.

"It really killed me," said George Allen, owner of Ed Allen's Boats and Bait, which includes Lakeside Restaurant.

Allen's aunt, Debra Ward, owns Ed Allen's Campgrounds nearby.

"I lost some permanent campers that had camped with me for years," Ward said. "You couldn't get in and out of the lake -- you couldn't fish it."

Ward said she's already doing better this year. She said she's averaging between 30 and 35 overnight campsite rentals on weekends, compared with an average of about 20 this time last year.

Despite the higher water level, Allen said he's unhappy that the boat lock remains out of order because he's missing business from people who would boat from the Chickahominy River into the lake and dock at Lakeside Restaurant.

When working properly, the lock lifts boats from the river level so they can enter the lake.

"Even if I got one boat that comes from the river to eat here, he's not coming," Allen said last week as he cleaned out a 14-foot Jon boat for a customer.

Jill O'Brien-Jones, co-owner of Eagles Landing, said that because of the broken boat lock, some fishermen won't enter her bass fishing tournaments because they can't boat to the river.

Business owners say they're glad, though, that the boat lock will be fixed eventually, and they'll do the best they can until then.

"If we get rain and the levels stay where they're at, it'll be OK," O'Brien-Jones said.
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.