Emergency Dam Repairs Begin

photo courtesy US Army Corps of Engineers

Emergency repairs began today on lock and dam No. 6 above Freeport---one of the hottest fishing spots on the Allegheny River. The US Army Corps of Engineers, which discovered the problem during a recent underwater inspection, said the badly eroded structure might not withstand a hard winter. The Freeport pool will be drawn down as part of the fix. Because the dam is a navigational and not a flood control structure, there is no threat to public safety, according to Col. Michael Crall, the Corps' district engineer for Pittsburgh, but failure would impact water supplies for homes and industries along the river, and could damage rare mussel beds and the nearby Cogleys Island wetlands. Crall has called the more than a dozen locks and dams on the Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio and Youghiogheny rivers the most fatigued in the Corps' five-state inland waterways system. Hear Deborah's radio report about this at www.alleghenyfront.org.