BILLINGS -- Engineers' attempts to staunch the flow from Hebgen Dam's broken outlet met more problems Thursday after crews found that an old iron beam that was part of a trash-collecting device was lodged in the hole, halting the installation of new stoplogs.

"We're not always having a clear picture of what we're dealing with in this deep water," said David Hoffman, PPL Montana spokesman. "And we're concerned about aggravating and making it worse."

PPL Montana operates the dam. Built in 1915, Hebgen is an earth-filled dam with a concrete core wall. It is 721 feet long and 85 feet high.

The stoplogs that PPL is trying to replace are anchored in front of one of the dam's four outlets in the intake tower. At the fourth outlet, about 17 logs broke 25 feet under the lake's surface on Aug. 31, creating a 15-by-9-foot opening.

PPL Montana was using hydraulic rams to force 9-foot-long fir timbers, 12 inches square, into position to replace the broken stoplogs when they discovered the problem with the iron beam. By Thursday, engineers had crafted a tool mounted with a camera to be lowered into the water by crane to remove the old beam.

"It's hard to articulate how difficult this is and how strong the forces are down there," Hoffman said.

If the beam can be removed, more stoplogs would be installed to plug the outflow.

After the break, engineering crews first tried to lower a steel bulkhead to block the water's flow, but that effort was called off after the surging water caused a 45,000-pound drilling rig to shake. When engineers tried to install new stoplogs, they were stalled by five older timbers that had warped and were difficult to remove.

By Thursday, crews had put 15 new timbers in place when they found the bent I-beam. The entire outlet structure holds 65 timbers. Twelve steel-reinforced timbers on the bottom are still in place. Eventually, Hoffman said, all of the timbers would be replaced with concrete blocks and new head gates would be installed.

The leak has dropped the level of Hebgen Lake by 8 feet, forcing boat owners to leave docks. Water gushing out of the dam has bolstered flows in the Madison River to levels even higher than those typically reached during spring runoff -- more than 3,000 cubic feet per second. The usual flow out of the dam at this time of the year is 850 cfs.

The loss of water has left boat docks high and dry on Hebgen Lake and has driven many trout anglers away from Montana's internationally known stretch of the Madison River.

"As far as business goes, it's definitely slowed us down," said Matt Karey of the Madison River Fishing Co. in Ennis. "As far as fishing goes, it's still pretty good. But people who've called ahead, it's hard to talk them into it."

"September is usually a good month for people in Ennis," said Steve Kack, owner of Ennis RV Village. "Right now it's not too bad. I know I've lost a little business."

Concern may be greater about the long-term effects of the lengthy drawdown of the lake, as well as the high, unseasonable flows on the Madison River.

"I don't know if it's having an effect on the fishery, but it's having an effect on the fishing," said Pat Clancey, a state Fish, Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologist in Ennis. "Fish are used to high water, but it is unseasonable and higher than they're used to."

By this time of the year, Clancey said, young rainbow trout that hatched in June and July have already had a couple of months to grow. Many of the upper Madison's brown trout, which are fall spawners, travel up the West Fork of the Madison to lay their eggs, he said, so they wouldn't be affected.

"There are some (brown trout) that spawn in the river. While they may find good gravels and get the spawn in, a concern is that some of the redds could be dried out when the water drops," Clancey said.

Redds are where fish lay their eggs.

Clancey said there could also be some impact on aquatic bugs that fish feed on, but that would likely be short-term since the insects recolonize quickly.

There's also concern about maintaining adequate flows in the Madison River until Hebgen Lake can refill. The lower Madison, below Ennis Dam, has struggled with high water temperatures in the summer as dam outflows decrease, something PPL Montana has been trying to address. The state has an agreement with the company to keep dam releases from Hebgen at a minimum of 600 cfs and below Ennis Dam at 1,100 cfs, Clancey said.

Clancey said that so far, FWP is not concerned about reduced streamflows.

"If it continues to keep going down and gets down a dozen feet or more below the current pool, then we've lost quite a bit of habitat for fish," he said. "If this continues on indefinitely, then we'll be concerned about the loss of connectivity between streams and Hebgen Lake."

Rumor mill

Fish weren't a top concern when the dam's leak was first reported. Initial rumors said the dam had burst and a wall of water was rushing toward Ennis. Cabin Creek and Beaver Creek campgrounds below the dam were evacuated.

"The initial lack of information in town was the big problem," said Pamela Kimmey, executive director of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce. "There was a big scare about it, and information passed around town wasn't correct."

Kack said callers to his business said they had heard that the dam had collapsed and the river was ruined. Other rumors had residents of the town fleeing.

"The rumors were greatly exaggerated," Kack said. "The rumor mill in Ennis is crazy."

Jim Albin, who runs Yellowstone Holiday resort on the shores of Hebgen Lake, said he and other business owners were in the dark.

"They didn't contact anybody for a week," he said. "I heard about it from somebody in Utah."

The lake's swift drawdown - as steep as a staircase on the U.S. Geological Survey's lake elevation graph - put a quick end to the summer season at Albin's resort.

"It ended it pretty fast, but we were at the point where it was winding down anyway," he said.

Last summer was even worse, he said, as the lake was drawn down during a dry spell to keep flows in the Madison River adequate for the million-dollar trout fishery. The lake got so low that Albin had to refund $10,000 in fees to dock renters. That prompted him to dredge the marina down an extra 3 feet during the off-season.

"Right now it's as low as last year," he said.