Marianna Dam Flooding Upstream
This section of Ten Mile road, like several roads upstream of the Marianna dam, had to be closed in 2017 due to flooding.
This is a field off Ten Mile Road. The water flooded the roadway nearby causing the road to have to be closed.
If the dam is causing roads to be closed and fields and basements to be flooded, who is responsible? What happens when an ambulance cannot get to someone in need on time? What happens when the fire department can't get to a house fire within the normal time frame via these routes? It's not like we won't have torrential rain again, and that these issues won't happen again.
Unfortunately, to some people who want to save the dam, it's more important to feel right and win an argument, than it is to do what's right and solve problems. It's not just flooding that's a problem caused by the dam. Other issues like sediment build-up, fish blockage, safety, etc., are issues.
In 2010, a 2nd flood control project took place in West Bethlehem Township. At this time, the borough was still using the water above the Marianna dam as a source of public drinking water. The borough hasn't needed this water source since the water plant closed in 2014. That was 8 years ago. What in the past 8 years has been done to help alleviate flooding upstream, by the borough? Flooding issues are only focused on the township by the Army Corps of Engineers, and whether or not the township keeps the vegetation cut along Ten Mile creek to avoid flooding issues, or risk a fine. The reason is that the dam is privately-owned. It is up to the borough to have a plan for flooding, but they don't have a floodplain ordinance because they don't get flooded. The borough-owned dam contributes to flooding in the township, so the effects of the borough dam have negative impacts on a nearby community.
Studies already show that dams slow water flow. If the water is being slowed above the dam, this causes water to raise higher than it normally would in a flood plain. If that is the case, why isn't this being addressed? Would the unnecessary increase in water levels change a person's flood insurance rates? If water is higher upstream because of the dam, then along with flooding, erosion must be happening higher on the banks than what would be in a normal floodplain? Lots of questions and no answers. And then there are the issues of ice buildup.
2-22-2022 Light flooding, Fischer Hollow Road in West Bethlehem township.
