$45 Million Valley Water Resource Upgrade Upgrade | News, sports, jobs

Austin Town’s Ralph Miller, MVSD’s Chief of Security, stands by the dam at Meander Creek Reservoir…by R. Michael Semple

MINERAL RIDGE – When the Mahoning Valley Health District begins revamping its meandering reservoir dam in the next two years, the dam will better withstand a rare flood event and seismic activity such as earthquakes.

The $45 million improvements include a scale that will address the increase in earthquakes in the community since 2011 and the potential for flooding, says Michael McNinish, chief engineer at MVSD, which provides water to 220,000 customers in the area.

The North Side Youngstown injection well was blamed for causing earthquakes in 2011, culminating in a 4.0-magnitude earthquake on December 31, 2011. The injection well was later closed. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources also identifies an injection well on State Route 169 in Weathersfield as the source of two earthquakes — one on July 28, 2014 and the other on August 31, 2014. The July earthquake was a magnitude 1.7, and the August earthquake was 2.1.

One of the dam’s primary improvements, McNinish said, will be the installation of anchorages through the primary water drainage into the bedrock.

“This will be done to make sure that the drain does not shift or move as a result of an earthquake” or a major flood, McNinish said.

McNinish said he and other State Department officials are pursuing legal and administrative activities associated with the U.S. Water Department’s injection well at Weathersfield, which is regulated by ODNR. The reason, he said, was that “it could have a seismic effect on the dam.”

The U.S. Water Administration and ODNR discuss what kind of rules the U.S. Water Administration should follow to prevent an injection well from causing earthquakes that can damage the community, including the damming of a slalom reservoir.

A recent ODNR filing in a case before the Ohio Oil and Gas Authority states that the Meander Dam is “only three miles” from the Weathersfield well, and the dam poses a “particular risk,” because it “serves as the sole source of drinking water for more than 220,000 people and contains approximately 11 billion gallons of water.”

The request adds that a study by engineering firm Gannett Fleming indicated that the dam “was not designed using modern earthquake-resistance standards”. Furthermore, “Detailed engineering studies by Gannett Fleming indicated that the current dam slope does not meet current safety standards for reliable maximum earthquake loads.”

It says that “a major earthquake can have catastrophic consequences” because it “is sourced from homes, businesses and industrial sites that could be catastrophically flooded if it breaks through.”

The file quoted Weathersfield Fire Chief Tom Lambert as saying that such a flood would “completely inundate the south side of the Nile, downtown Niles and continue to move toward Warren.” There will be a lot of lives involved,” Lambert said.

The Meander Reservoir Dam is 50 feet high and 3,550 feet long with a 260-foot main drainage corridor located just southwest of the state at Route 46 and the intersection of Salt Springs Road in Mineral Ridge.

Former MVSD President Matt Blair expressed concerns about the dam’s safety in 2017, questioning whether well-injected seismic activity at Youngstown and Weathersfield was contributing to cracks in the MVSD buildings and the dam.

Holloway

However, Tom Holloway, a registered operator of the meandering water treatment plant and former chief engineer of MVSD, said last week that the Gannett Fleming study indicated that seismic activity did not cause any significant damage to MVSD facilities, including the dam.

There are no serious cracks in the dam. There are age cracks and things like that and the same with buildings. “We looked closely at the dam and the buildings…but there was not much damage from the only seismic activity we saw here,” Holloway said.

Holloway was referring to the 4.0-magnitude earthquake on December 31, 2011, caused by the D&L Energy injection well at Ohio Works Drive in Youngstown. But he made it clear that he was also referring to the two less serious earthquakes that occurred near the U.S. Water Service’s injection well on State Route 169 in Weathersfield.

“Most of the cracks here on the buildings are over time and age and some settlement of the buildings. There have been no significant findings indicating a crack or a serious problem with the dam,” Holloway said.

Blair and the rest of the MVSD board were in the planning stages of renovating the dam in 2017.

“Our earthquake dam is not built,” Blair said in 2017. “When we build there, if the ground becomes more stable, we have to build in a different way like California so it doesn’t crack. It’s a new problem for us.”

flood

Apart from earthquake issues are those associated with flooding.

The key concept is “maximum potential flood,” McNinish said, explaining that the maximum potential flood in this area is 19 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, which is rare.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources defines a potential maximum precipitation event as “the greatest depth (amount) of precipitation for a given storm duration that is theoretically possible for a given area and geographic location” and a potential maximum flood event as “the flood that can be expected from the most severe combination of conditions critical meteorological and hydrological conditions that are reasonably possible in a given drainage area.”

The Vindicator reported last November that according to the National Weather Service, the record amount of rain the Youngstown area has received in a single day, since 1931, was 4.65 inches on July 21, 2003. In the past 10 years, the area has been the wettest in a one-day period It was 3.96 inches on July 10, 2013.

Engineers working on behalf of the MVSD determined that if the reservoir got 19 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, “there was a possibility” that the dam might be “over the top” or that “parts of our sewers would shift,” McNinch said.

At this point, it is possible for the dam to “break through”, meaning that the water may create an opening or “breakthrough”, allowing the water to pass downstream and endangering people.

“The probability of that happening is very small, but the consequences are very dire,” McNinish said of the breach of the dam. There is no immediate threat of failure of the dam. What we are trying to do is a guide to the future. We are trying to modernize the dam to be able to withstand the maximum possible flood potential.”

“The dam was built using 1920s technology, and was commissioned in 1931, so it’s close to 100 years old. So, like any other major structure, you need to do preventative maintenance, and that’s what we’re looking for,” McNinish said.

Holloway and McNinish said upgrading the dam would raise the pier on the dam because at the height it is now, it “could sink and fail,” Holloway said.

“Part of the project is making sure the pier is the same height/height across the entire width of the dam,” McNinish said. If there is a potential maximum flooding, McNinish said, it is possible that the water “could bypass the initial and auxiliary flow stream, which could cut off the earthen portion of the dam and then the underlying concrete wall causing the dam to collapse.” The concrete core wall is located within the earthen part of the dam, McNinish said.

Rehabilitation of the dam will also create an additional new drain, flatten the dams downstream, modernize dam-related devices, electrical and lighting services, and replace access roads to the eastern and western dam.

environmental study

In mid-May, the MVSD displayed a legal advertisement requiring companies to submit bids by June 7 on a contract to conduct an environmental assessment in connection with the renewal. The cost is estimated at $100,000.

McNinch said the Ohio Emergency Management Agency has recommended that the MVSD conduct the assessment to improve the area’s chances of gaining approval for $30 million in grant money that it is seeking from FEMA to pay for $45 million in dam renovations.

The assessment “is essentially looking at all the impacts – environmental, ecological and any potential flooding – that could occur while construction is underway,” McNinish said. It will also assess any potential historical monuments.

The MVSD hopes that the environmental assessment will be completed by this fall and will be submitted by January 1, 2023 for the $30 million grant.

Engineering for the renovations has been completed, McNinish said, and a portion of the funding — about $12 million — has been allocated to the renovation. We have received nearly all permits from the state and federal levels. We are working closely with ODNR (based on a building permit) and expect to finalize this permit in the next two weeks. “We’ve come a long way,” McIninch said.

2023

“We plan to go out for construction bids in the fall of 2023 because the main driving factor is safety, but the other major issue is inflation,” McNinish said. “It’s a $45.456 million project as of January of this year, but it’s about 8 percent annual inflation, so if we wait another year, the whole project is up by $3.2 million,” he said.

The renewal process is expected to continue next year, with or without a $30 million grant.

“If the grant is not awarded, we have a worst-case scenario going forward to pay for it internally through our price structure,” McNinish said. By that, it means that the nonprofit’s MVSD’s ongoing revenue will be used to pay for renewals.

If the federal grant application is successful, the MVSD will add $15 million in matching funds to the $30 million grant. The area’s current revenue will be used for further and ongoing improvements in the real estate finance space.

“We are always working on upscaling and improving and making sure that we are in the best possible position to serve everyone in the entire region,” he said.

“We try to keep our costs as low as possible by taking whatever grant money is available,” McNinish said. “We’ve had tremendous support at the district level. I’m talking about mayors at every level, local mayors up to the federal level and Congressman Johnson and Congressman Tim Ryan.”

U.S. Representative Bill Johnson, a Republican for Marietta, toured the MVSD facilities in November to learn more about them and the renovation. Johnson’s sixth congressional district will include all Trumbull and Mahoning counties beginning with this year’s election. It will also include Columbiana, Jefferson, Carroll, Harrison, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and all but four counties in Washington County.

Meandor Resevoir provides drinking water to approximately 220,000 people in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Johnson expressed his support for the renovation project.

“This is real infrastructure,” Johnson said. “We’ll definitely fight for it, you don’t need to sell me when you need it because that’s no different from water systems or sewage systems all over Appalachia or throughout my state area.”

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