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| Michael J. Kirwan Dam & Reservoir posted |
"Since its completion in 1966, the Kirwan Reservoir has prevented flood damages estimated to be in excess of $755 million. Kirwan has the capability to store the equivalent run-off of 18.35 inches of precipitation from its 80.5 square mile drainage area. When compared, the $20 million cost of construction is far outweighed by the project’s flood prevention benefits." The dam also helps provide a minimal flow in the Mahoning River. [usace]
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| USACE, Pittsburgh District posted Fun bit of history: Michael J. Kirwan Dam & Reservoir wasn’t always Michael J. Kirwan Dam & Reservoir. This photo from June 8, 1965, shows workers beneath the original West Branch Dam & Reservoir sign, back when the under-construction project was still named for the West Branch Mahoning River it impounds. Five years later, Congress passed Public Law 91-639 and officially renamed the project for Michael J. Kirwan, a longtime congressman from northeastern Ohio who championed reservoir construction throughout the region. As our trusty history book, "The Headwaters District: A History of the Pittsburgh District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" explains: "Mr. President, you will surely recall crossing the Mahoning River two or three times during your visit to Youngstown's busy steel plants last fall," Congressman Mike Kirwan wrote in his May 1941 letter to Franklin Roosevelt. "The Mahoning River is now at the point of drying up after its flood waters threatened interruption of production in January. That river is 80% sewage, and we are called the 'wonder people of America' because we drink it and it doesn't kill us. I was foreman in a steel plant here for twenty years and can recall sending men to shunt sewage away from the water intakes." Michael J. Kirwan was appealing to the President, Congress and to anyone who would listen in 1941 for quick action on Mahoning basin water troubles. He declared that repeated flooding interfered with steel mill production, that strong men collapsed from the stench of the polluted stream, and that low water flows hampered national defense. He said steel mills used and reused the Mahoning so many times that both water taps in Youngstown homes delivered hot water, and that ducks never landed on the Mahoning for fear of being cooked alive. People and industry in the Mahoning basin had built Milton and Meander Creek dams without a cent contributed by the Federal Government, though the Mahoning Valley paid more in taxes than some states. Floods and droughts in the Mahoning basin disrupted production of 10% of the nation's steel, essential to any defense program. "There is only one way to remedy this threatening situation," Kirwan told the President, "and that is by the immediate construction of Berlin and Mosquito Creek dams on the Mahoning and one of its principal tributaries." |
The emergency spillway is on the left descending (north) abutment.
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