Feb 28, 2018 2 min read

MARIANNA – After having been battered by an ice jam and back-to-back flash flooding this month, the crumbling Marianna dam appears to be breaching in a few locations, a borough official said.

Unusual flows of water at both ends of the low-head dam along Ten Mile Creek are indications that it is leaking, borough council President Wes Silva said.

“It’s like sticking your finger in a dike,” said Silva.

He also said there appears to be a crack running across the center of the dam, which was built by a coal mine in the early 1900s and used as a public water reservoir until a few years ago.

The state Department of Environmental Protection does not consider the dam to be a risk to the public should it fail because there are no occupied houses or businesses in the downstream area near the stream bed, said Lauren Fraley, DEP spokeswoman in Pittsburgh. The rushing water below the dam is considered to be dangerous for swimmers, and the public is restricted from getting too close to the waterfall.

The DEP last inspected the dam about a year ago, and it issued the borough a letter May 19 warning that “deteriorated, settled and dilapidated concrete” on both ends of the dam needed immediate repair work to prevent a dam failure, borough records indicate. The borough has yet to complete the repairs.

As an alternative, the borough in December contracted with a charitable organization, American Rivers, to remove the dam at no cost to local taxpayers. The dam-removal project, which has yet to be scheduled, also will involve restoring the creek to its normal floodplain and creating two boat launches to the stream on its northern banks. The ramps will be compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, the borough has said.

American Rivers’ director of river restoration, Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy, has asked to meet with the borough to refresh council on the project, Silva said.

Hollingsworth-Segedy said she has asked for proposals from companies that are interested in the job.