Good News for Water-Scarce Ulsan: Hoeya Dam Gate Installation Confirmed, Securing an Additional 8.1 Million Tons of Raw Water

【Financial News, Ulsan = Reporter Choi Soo-sang】A gate installation project that will increase the storage capacity of Hoeya Dam, Ulsan Metropolitan City's main water source, has been approved. Faced with an extreme drought and a water shortage, Ulsan Metropolitan City plans to move quickly, including pushing for exclusion from the preliminary feasibility study process. 
According to the Waterworks Headquarters of Ulsan Metropolitan City, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment officially announced on the 27th the final project sites after reviewing seven candidate locations for new dams that had been announced in September last year.
For Hoeya Dam, the plan calls for installing five gates, each 20 meters wide and 7.3 meters high, on the existing spillway. The estimated project cost is about 95 billion won, with 85.5 billion won from the national budget and 9.5 billion won from the city budget.
Once the project is completed, the dam is expected to store about 8.1 million more tons of water and reduce flood volume flowing into downstream urban areas by about 20%.
Hoeya Dam currently has a total storage capacity of 21.53 million cubic meters, with an effective storage capacity of 13.539 million cubic meters. After the gates are installed, the effective storage capacity will rise to about 21 million cubic meters.

The Waterworks Headquarters said the project will proceed by installing gates only on the existing spillway without raising the dam body, so there will be no need to expand the boundaries of existing regulated zones such as the water source protection area, nor will it increase flood-prone areas downstream.
With the project now confirmed, Ulsan Metropolitan City plans to continue consultations with the National Assembly and relevant ministries so that follow-up procedures, including exclusion from the preliminary feasibility study process, can proceed without disruption.
Earlier, Ulsan Mayor Kim Sang-wook attended a meeting on July 6 chaired by President Lee Jae-myung to review responses to heat waves and drought. There, he directly urged the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water), and other relevant agencies to recognize the need and urgency of installing gates at Hoeya Dam and called for the project to be approved as soon as possible.
At the time, Kim also visited the government and the National Assembly in person to stress the urgency of the project, citing the drought-driven drop in Hoeya Dam's water level to the low 20% range and the purchase of water from the Nakdong River to maintain tap water production, which was further complicated by a green algae bloom and raised alarm over drinking water supplies for residents.



[email protected] Choi Soo-sang Reporter