8 Sep 2023

Headwaters Highlights: Stonewall Jackson team keeps it ‘in-house’ to benefit public, wildlife

Most people who picture a lake think of a unified body of calm water. Yet, from the sky, Stonewall Jackson Lake resembles a series of lightning bolts striking in different directions than a traditional lake.

15 Jun 2023

Is Union City Dam broken? The dry bed reservoir functions just right

By definition, a dam is “a barrier preventing the flow of water or of loose solid materials such as soil or snow”…so why does Union City Dam sometimes look like there’s no water in it? That contradiction is by design: Union City Dam is the only “dry” reservoir in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District.

2 Jun 2023

Headwaters Highlight: Rangers welcome bird watchers to Berlin Lake as a growing birding hotspot

Park rangers and staff at Berlin Lake want to encourage more bird enthusiasts to visit the reservoir. Berlin Lake is located along the Atlantic Flyway path, considered a migration highway, making the reservoir a hotspot for birds during migration.

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.