Corps seeks input on local dams

The effect of dam removal on flooding would be minimal, corps officials say.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- Federal officials are seeking local residents' opinions on the future of several dams that serve to slow the now-swollen Mahoning River.
The Army Corps of Engineers wants to know if local residents think the dams, some of which are more than a century old, should be removed or altered. The dams are located between Lowellville in Mahoning County and Leavittsburg in Trumbull County.
Corps officials will hold a public meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty to discuss the dams with local residents. Comments collected at the meeting will be used to help create a study of a proposal to dredge the river.
Carmen Rozzi, project manager for the corps' Pittsburgh office, said removing some of the dams could increase the river's flow and reduce the possibility that the river would reach flood stage.
"If you take an obstruction out of the river, it's a good thing," he said. "It makes it more free-flowing."
Small impact
Corps Public Affairs Officer Dick & ordm; that the effect on flooding would be minimal because many of the dams are small.
Most of the dams are between 5 and 6 feet high, and several are underwater because of recent rain.
The river crested 3 inches above flood level Monday afternoon in Youngstown and began to recede. Flood level is 10 feet.
The tallest dam, at Summit Street in Warren, is about 10 feet high; the shortest is 2 to 3 feet high, Rozzi said.
Kim Mascarella, director of environmental planning for the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, noted that many of the dams have been reduced to rubble over the years.
Some of the dams were built in the mid-1800s to allow for boat navigation in the river, Rozzi said. Others were built by steel mills that needed pools of water for their companies in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.
Rozzi noted that the corps doesn't plan to change the Summit Street dam or the Liberty Street dam in Girard because they are still needed by local businesses such as WCI Steel. Changing the Summit Street dam also would affect Perkins Park, Rozzi said.
Mascarella said Eastgate has received calls from some residents asking how removing the dams could affect recreation. Removing the dams could make the river more exciting for kayak and canoe enthusiasts, she said.
She added, however, that the increased flow of the river could create safety concerns for boaters.
Eastgate is working with the corps to create a $3 million study of a proposal to dredge 31 miles of the river between Leavittsburg and the Pennsylvania line. The dredging project, which would cost an estimated $100 million, would remove riverbank and bottom sediments contaminated by decades of accumulation from steel and related industries.
The study is expected to be complete early next year.
hill@vindy.com