Jun 10, 2017 5 min read

Ten Mile Creek is beautiful during spring. The rushing water flowing over the dam creates a picturesque scene.

Sadly, this isn’t the case year-round. Once we begin to get close to summer, the days get hotter and less rain falls. The water in the creek begins to evaporate, not returning until late September or October. For the entirety of the summer, the beautiful waterfall created by the dam is replaced by a bare 100-foot-wide, decaying concrete wall next to a decrepit roundhouse structure. For a third of the year, and at the height of tourist season, is this the image we want our visitors to see?

History is important, but so is progress.

The reservoir, which was invaluable in times past, is no longer fulfilling any purpose, and is hurting the health of our local ecosystem. The water lies stuck and stagnant behind the crumbling Marianna dam, lacks oxygen and algae thrives. This process, known as hypoxia, causes wildlife living in the creek to slowly suffocate, the largest of which die first as they are unable to acquire enough oxygen for their bodies to function. Fish are unable to breed or thrive in this environment. How will this attract anyone to visit? Possibly a concerned environmentalist, but who else? Wouldn’t a natural, free-flowing creek filled with life other than algae and oxygen-deprived fish, and clear and clean water rather than green and stagnant water, be a beautiful alternative?

To see nature take its course and see the land as it truly is, to be able to kayak or canoe through the area the dam blocks, would benefit the locals greatly and surely be a more desirable tourist location. Nature, after all, is the reason we go to wild places in the first place.

Fishing would still be an option; removing the dam in Marianna will not affect the already deep fishing spots that exist, or the yearly canoe race that attracts locals and people from afar. However, it may make the fish that live there healthier and capable of growing larger, while also improving the likelihood of native fish returning to breed, rather than depending on stocked fish.

With the American Rivers plan to remove the dam, there is also a plan to add a park. In the comprehensive plan of Marianna borough, there are already specific projects that would help restore Marianna. The new park would help the community move in that direction. With the safety issue of having a park so close to a dangerously unstable dam removed, this goal can be achieved. Children and families will be able to enjoy and play safely, without fear of drowning or flooding.

With the dam gone, visitors and locals would be able to enjoy traveling the creek, as they would be connected to new areas upstream. Those interested in canoeing would now have access to a much longer passage of water, and more likely to visit than ever before. No longer would they have to worry about falling in sickly green water or, even worse, falling over the dam.

Finally, the dam plays a terrible part in the problems plaguing our roads. Repairs are constantly being made on the same small strip of road next to the dam. Why? The dam causes the water to push the rock and sediment from beneath the road into the creek, slowly hollowing out the rock holding the road up. This isn’t safe. Every time the dam is under stress and being flooded, it causes problems.

Safety is not an option; it is a priority. Borough officials are trying to do their best for the community with the facts they have. Presently, they cannot afford the burden of restoring a dam whose economic usefulness has long passed. And to assume the borough has the kind of funds to cover the repair, maintenance and insurance of the dam without expecting taxes to rise is to believe in nonsense.

Brick-by-brick, the roundhouse structure is disappearing. What happens when one brick too many has fallen, and a fisherman believes he’s safe? They may have fished off the dam for decades, so what will one more time hurt? An accident can expose council members and the borough unnecessarily to increased financial and personal risks and liability.

Yes, the dam can be beautiful and it is historical. But it is also dangerous, decaying, and an environmental hazard. Do we wait until a road collapses? Or when there is so much flooding the dam finally breaks and floods Marianna? Or does another person have to fall from the dam for the danger it holds to be recognized?

Removing the dam is a difficult choice for Marianna, and it is the right choice. There are no funds to fix the dam; there is no magic cure for all the problems that the dam causes, and currently there have been no studies done to determine whether or not Marianna businesses will gain or lose from keeping the dam.

An era is ending, but a new bright one can begin. Just because one great chapter of life has ended doesn’t mean the next one cannot be greater; we just have to be able to know when to turn the page.

Scherer is a West Bethlehem Township resident, a self-employed artist and outdoor enthusiast.