Posted on September 28, 2020
HOMER CITY — Here’s an instance where folks are hoping for rain so they can go out and get their job done.
A plan by Central Indiana County Water Authority to dredge tons of silt and sediment from behind the Yellow Creek Dam was funded in large part Tuesday by a grant of $71,250 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A dramatic shortage of rain this summer has reduced daily water flow in Yellow Creek from about 130 million to just 7 million gallons a day, according to authority Manager Rob Nymick.
The authority’s reservoir has run low this summer. Not low enough to warrant water conservation measures by the authority’s customers in Homer City and Center and White Townships, but low enough for the authority to cancel planned fire hydrant flushing.
And so low that any effort now to scoop the mud from the reservoir would cloud the water too much for consumers to use.
So with some significant rainfall, heavy runoff and increased flow in Yellow Creek, the government award brings the authority closer to completing work that began seven years ago to increase the amount of water held in the reservoir.
In turn, the water that’s piped from the dam to the CICWA treatment plant near Homer City would require less chemical treatment and disinfectant to purify it for consumers.
The authority qualified for the grant with its contribution of $23,750, or 25 percent of the total project cost of $95,000.
The commander of the Corp of Engineer’s Pittsburgh District, Col. Andrew “Coby” Short, signed the award papers with Nymick at the Homer City Borough office. He said CICWA’s grant comes from a $2 million fund set up for infrastructure projects in 14 counties in the region, all in the headwaters that flow into the Ohio River at Pittsburgh.
“This is one of the more rewarding portions of my job,” Short said. “I’m worried about water levels in reservoirs, and getting commerce up and down the rivers with my lock operators and billion-dollar projects. But this is where the partnership between the federal entity and the local level, where we can truly have a huge impact.”
The corps’ project manager, Jesse Bisnette, said the work could begin in as little as 30 to 45 days. The authority’s project designer is Kevin Szakelyhidi of Bankson Engineers, of Indianola.
When finished, the removal of 4,800 cubic yards of sediment will make room for almost 970,000 gallons of water, according to a Corps of Engineers estimate.
“Sediment has built up in the Yellow Creek pool which has adversely impacted the overall quality of water in the pool,” according to the project description. “The lower water quality is evident by the increased turbidity, odor, color and temperature of the raw water that the authority takes in. … The poor water quality requires increased chemical usage and processing time to effectively treat the water. Dredging is the most efficient and effective means to eliminate these issues and reduced the amount of chemicals needed to treat the water.”
The authority’s reservoir is downstream from Yellow Creek Lake, the centerpiece of the state park in Cherryhill and Brush Valley townships. Nymick said the project would only be a temporary improvement unless the state takes steps to improve conditions of the creek leaving the state park.
“One of my goals, when I leave this place, is that I want the water to be as clean as possible,” Nymick said. “The effects of what we are doing are incredible as far as keeping our chlorine at a minimum and the manganese. … The cleaner we keep this, the less chemicals (are necessary).”
Nymick said CICWA, so far, keeps water safe and free of taste and smell with the use of one-third the allowable levels of some treatment chemicals.
But ultimately, Nymick said, “we have to get Yellow Creek clean. We can continue to dredge every year, but until Yellow Creek State Park gets clean, we’re going to have problems.”
Nymick said dredging has proven effective. In past years, the authority had to shut down the intake to the treatment plant several times a year when heavy rains increased the turbidity levels in Yellow Creek.
“Since we started dredging in 2013 … we have not had to shut the plant down one time,” Nymick said.
Source: indianagazette
