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Study at Meander Dam and MVSD campus to address whether earthquakes are responsible for cracks
By Ed Runyan
MINERAL RIDGE
A $9,922 Mahoning Valley Sanitary District study is expected to tell MVSD officials whether earthquakes could be contributing to cracks in its Meander Dam and the district’s 15 buildings.
A draft report from the study by Gannett Fleming Engineers and Architects of Columbus is expected to be provided to the district early this month, according to a time line provided by the company.
“We have a lot of cracking in our dam, and we have a lot of cracking in our buildings,” said Matt Blair, an attorney and chairman of the MVSD board. “Brick buildings are cracking, even new ones.”
Neither Blair nor Tom Holloway, MVSD’s chief engineer, would offer an opinion on whether the cracking has accelerated in recent years or whether they think earthquakes might explain the cracks. Holloway did say he doesn’t think the cracks threaten the viability of the dam.
“All we know is we’ve had some cracking, but we’ll find out,” Blair said of any relationship between the cracks and earthquakes. “It’s one of those deals. You have to be real careful.”
When Holloway was asked whether he thinks earthquakes could be responsible for the cracks, he said: “I don’t have an opinion.”
There are other possible explanations for the cracks besides shifting ground through natural or man-made earthquakes, such as faulty cement, or the facility having been built on land that is settling, Blair said. The dam and many of the buildings were constructed in the 1920s.
Blair and Holloway said one reason to determine what is causing the cracks is so that future projects can be done correctly.
The MVSD board is now considering a possible $28 million reconstruction of the dam. Gannett Fleming, working under a $396,000 contract, is conducting soil borings to explore what is below the surface at the dam. Gannett Fleming will use the results in its recommendations regarding possible reconstruction, Holloway said.
A report on those tests is expected in September.
“Our dam wasn’t built for earthquakes,” Blair said. “When we build out there, if the ground is becoming more unstable, we have to build in a different way like California so we don’t have cracking. It’s kind of a new problem for us.”
Seismic activity in the Mahoning Valley was rarely a hot topic until seismic events began to be recorded and publicized in 2011 in Youngstown.
The 4.0-magnitude New Year’s Eve earthquake centered in Youngstown and later associated with the D & L Energy Inc.’s deep injection well on Ohio Works Drive changed all that.
There was much more scrutiny when American Water Management Services prepared to open its deep injection well on state Route 169 in Weathersfield Township just north of Niles in 2014.
When officials determined that a 2.1-magnitude seismic event occurred near the AWMS site Aug. 30, 2014, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources shut it down while officials continued to study seismicity associated with injection wells and horizontal fracturing.
Injection wells force wastewater from gas and oil drilling deep underground as a means of disposal.
Gannett Fleming made a site visit to the the Meander Dam and MVSD campus Nov. 21. Holloway took the company’s representatives to the dam and its buildings so they could gather information.
According to an Oct. 18 document from Gannett Fleming, its representatives planned to review MVSD documents ahead of the visit, then look at the top of the dam, emergency spillway structures and gate house but not include a “detailed inspection, measurements, or survey and mapping of cracks.”
A brief letter report will “provide an opinion of the possible causes of the more significant cracking and will identify recommended action by the District,” Gannett Fleming said.
It’s possible the report “may include a recommendation for performing a detailed survey and mapping of cracks at the buildings, which could serve as a baseline condition for conducting future periodic, engineering inspections or for conducting engineering inspections following future seismic activity,” the company said.
A target date for providing the MVSD with a “draft” report regarding the cracks is Thursday, but the company planned to hold a teleconference with MVSD officials to discuss the findings after the letter is submitted. A final report will follow at an undetermined date.
The MVSD sells water to Youngstown and Niles, which then sells it to about 200,000 customers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.