30 May 2023

Headwaters Highlights: Dam Safety Team Conducts Regular ‘Doctor Visits’ to Prevent Flooding Disasters

The Pittsburgh District dam safety team develops and maintains emergency action plans and works with emergency managers and first responders to ensure communities are safe from potential dam risks or failures.

1 May 2023

Headwaters Highlights: New Cumberland Locks and Dam

If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed New Cumberland Locks and Dam in 1839 instead of 1961, it might have been called Vernon Locks and Dams or Cuppytown Locks and Dam, named after John Cuppy, who designed the town and named it Vernon. Instead, the earliest land buyers in Vernon requested Cuppy to name the town after Cumberland, Maryland – and a town was born. But, more importantly, a lock and dam found its name.

1 May 2023

Headwaters Highlights: New Cumberland Locks and Dam

If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed New Cumberland Locks and Dam in 1839 instead of 1961, it might have been called Vernon Locks and Dams or Cuppytown Locks and Dam, named after John Cuppy, who designed the town and named it Vernon. Instead, the earliest land buyers in Vernon requested Cuppy to name the town after Cumberland, Maryland – and a town was born. But, more importantly, a lock and dam found its name.

17 Apr 2023

Pittsburgh District’s Water Quality team conducts first “spring pulse”

Millions of gallons of water rushed out of the Kinzua Dam every minute for eight hours straight into the Allegheny River. The outflow caused the Allegheny River to rise by almost two feet. The water pushed out of the dam with massive force, resembling giant firehoses opened to full blast. This water release event was seven years in the making, a perfect storm of conditions that allowed water quality experts to replicate a spring pulse.

17 Mar 2023

New hoists at Crooked Creek Lake offer flood protection for the next 75 years

They may just look like large hunks of metal, but the new hoists installed at Crooked Creek Lake will go hard at work to reduce the risk of floods in the greater Pittsburgh region for the next 75 years or longer. The hoists – weighing 38,000 pounds apiece – work to lift reservoir gates to control the lake’s water level and mitigate flooding downstream. Flood mitigation is one of the Corps of Engineers’ primary missions, and Crooked Creek Dam has helped prevent flooding for both the local community and downtown Pittsburgh since the dam’s construction in 1938.

5 Jul 2022

Balancing our region’s reservoir waters

After a three-year-long evaluation, Col. Kimberly A. Peeples, commander of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, signed a congressionally approved and updated water control manual for the Mahoning River Basin.

20 May 2022

Nine dams and a thousandth of an inch

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District operates nine dams along the Lower Fox River as it flows from Lake Winnebago to Lake Michigan. Balancing the needs of all the stakeholders along the river as well as four privately owned dams the Corps of Engineers can still manage to control the level of Lake Winnebago to a thousandth of an inch.

11 May 2022

Louisville District Dam Safety team works hard to ensure dams are reliable

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for more than 700 dams across the United States that provide multiple benefits such as flood risk management, navigation, water supply, hydropower, environmental stewardship, fish and wildlife conservation, and recreation. Through the Dam Safety Program, USACE provides oversight for its dams and works to ensure they remain safe, reliable and able to provide their intended benefits.

14 Apr 2022

Louisville District celebrates National Volunteer Month

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District celebrates National Volunteer Month every April by recognizing the tremendous effort of the volunteers who give their time at the recreational sites in the district’s footprint. Volunteers are an essential part of delivering the district’s recreational activities.

6 Dec 2021

USACE team successfully completes miter gate repairs at Markland Locks and Dam

For approximately two years, Markland Locks and Dam’s auxiliary chamber, in Warsaw, Kentucky, has been closed for repair. However, as of Dec. 4. 2021, the 600-foot chamber has reopened to navigation traffic. The chamber was originally closed due to an issue with the upper miter gate, and during that time all traffic continued to pass through the primary chamber. The Regional Heavy Capacity Repair Fleet has been on site at the project since August working to repair the miter gates.