Prompton and Jadwin dams did their jobs

Prompton to receive $8.4 million in spillway construction

By TOM KANE

PROMPTON BOROUGH & HONESDALE, PA - In case you were wondering how the “other” Pennsylvania dams made out during the late June flooding, the Prompton and Jadwin dams performed well in containing the flood waters, according to U.S. Corps of Engineers regional manager Austin Gerrard.

Both dams, built and maintained by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, are part of the Lackawaxen River Watershed in the Delaware River Basin and protect Honesdale, which has a history of flood devastations dating back to the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.

The Prompton Dam, which has no mechanism to release water, controls maximum flow by its spillway. The normal flow occurs through a large pipe at the base of the dam. In the history of the dam, the water has never gone over the spillway.

Even, so, $8.4 million of reconstruction work is being done “just in case,” Gerrard said.

“We are widening and deepening the spillway,” Gerrard said. “The construction is aimed at protecting the dam’s structure, and thereby protecting downstream communities.” The spillway is located at the right of the dam superstructure and is not a part of it.

Because the Prompton Dam was built in 1948, it does not conform to new technical criteria, which focuses on upper-limit flood events.

“While the dam is deficient hydrologically in meeting the new criteria, it is not deficient in its capacity to control floods,” he said. The dam is more than sufficient, even for a 1,000-year flood, if there was such a thing, he said.

“The river here was higher than it ever was in my memory, but this dam did its job,” said Randy Fries of Fries Welding and Fabrication, whose business is almost in the shadow of the dam. “There was no flooding here.”

The same was true of the Jadwin Dam, built in 1948, which is a single-purpose flood control reservoir located on the Dyberry Creek, approximately 2.9 miles north of Honesdale.

“The Jadwin Dam is a dry dam whose only purpose is to contain flood waters,” Gerrard said.

“The Prompton Dam has prevented $8.4 million in damages since it was constructed, and the Jadwin Dam prevented $7.7 million,” Gerrard said. “If those dams were not there, that would have been the extent of the damage which floods would have caused.”