Dutch Fork Lake back in use after lengthy battle following Ivan
A hilltop view of the Dutch Fork dam project in March 2012
Someone new to the area scanning the Observer-Reporter last April may have seen a brief item about stocking fish at Dutch Fork Lake off Route 40 between Claysville and West Alexander and thought little about it except the possibility of hooking a nice trout.
What the casual reader wouldn’t know is that it took eight years of behind-the-scenes and public action to reach the point of contracting out a multimillion-dollar project rebuilding a spillway damaged by the torrential rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan Sept. 17, 2004.
Ten years ago today, Southwestern Pennsylvania was transformed into a water world. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh rated it the top weather story of the decade. The remnants of Hurricane Frances dumped between 2 and 8 inches of rain Sept. 8, and a week later, Ivan followed the same path, hurling as much as 9 inches on the same area, breaking a previous record set by an unnamed hurricane’s remnants in 1888.
The aftermath of Hurricane Ivan affected no other Washington County body of water – or the people who enjoyed it – quite like it affected Dutch Fork Lake. More than 6 inches of rainfall undermined and upended concrete slabs that formed the emergency spillway and stilling basin of the dam built in 1959, so the state Fish and Boat Commission, in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Protection, was eventually forced to drain the lake because the instability threatened 325 homes and businesses downstream.
Water rushing from the reservoir in Donegal Township compromised the spillway, and bringing it up to modern standards would require that the 460-foot earthen dam be able to withstand as much as 24 inches of rain in 24 hours. The 91-acre reservoir was drained, and, for a short time, fishing was limitless for largemouth bass, bullhead catfish, crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, channel catfish and saugeye. Fish that anglers could not catch were transported to Canonsburg and Raccoon lakes.
When those tasks were completed, trees began growing in the muddy field that was once a lake bed, one of just a handful of public lakes in Washington and Greene counties.
“It was one of the best trout-fishing lakes in Western Pennsylvania,” Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi, who grew up nearby, lamented.
Immediately after the widespread flooding, officials were confident a grant of taxpayer dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay for what was then an estimated $3 million in repairs and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would assist.
FEMA, however, approved only $342,108 for repairs.
The Fish and Boat Commission appealed twice to FEMA, and local officials noted it was impossible to repair Dutch Fork Lake Dam without upgrading both the dam and spillway to meet current federal and state regulations.
A FEMA spokeswoman in 2006 said the appeal was denied because the entire structure was not damaged by Ivan, and federal funds are granted only to repair damaged elements of public facilities; the inadequacy of the spillway, it contended, was identified well before the Ivan disaster and dam safety regulations were not enforced at Dutch Fork, one of 16 dams the Fish and Boat Commission managed.
Then-Gov. Ed Rendell visited Claysville in early June 2006 as part of a campaign sweep, and when constituents quizzed him about the lake that was no longer, a news story at the time said he was unaware of the situation. Three months later in Washington County Court, 64 property owners downstream from the lake sued the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, claiming it failed to properly maintain the dam before Ivan struck, which caused serious flooding of Buffalo Creek when a “wall of water” inundated McKinleyville, Brooke County, W.Va. The court case remains open.
As the years passed, restoration costs escalated to $5.2 million.
The Buffalo Creek Watershed Association revived its festival in May 2008 after a three-year hiatus to draw attention to the lack of a lake and its accompanying fishing, boating and bird-watching. The event took place at the Sunset Beach swimming pool.
In 2009, the state approved $4 million from the Department of Community and Economic Development’s H2O program to reconstruct the dam’s spillway and build a protective covering for the embankment, and State Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California, whose district then included western Washington County, said the money would put lake restoration on a fast track.
“Every day, we get calls about Dutch Fork,” Daley said in May of that year. “It was such a recreation center, and it became a part of people’s lives.”
The committee that evaluates projects vying for a local share of gambling revenues from The Meadows Racetrack & Casino twice turned down the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association’s request for additional funding. A disgruntled resident was seen wearing a T-shirt imprinted with the words, “It’s the first day of trout season. Where is Dutch Fork Lake?”
On Aug. 1, 2011, a lakeside ceremony marked the beginning of restoration of Dutch Fork Lake, and in February 2012, the Fish and Boat Commission accepted a bonus payment of $2.2 million from Range Resources for the right to drill for oil and gas in the Marcellus Shale formation beneath the property. The money was pledged not just for Dutch Fork, but for other high-hazard dams around the state.
By early spring 2012, workers from Joseph B. Fay Co. of Russellton cleared, grubbed and stripped the site and removed sections of the concrete primary spillway as part of a $4.04 million contract, which also called for them to construct a new primary spillway, reset hand-placed stone on the upstream slope of the dam and “armor” its crest. That summer, the Fish and Boat Commission, along with volunteers, constructed fish habitat.
By March 2013 – 8 1/2 years after Ivan – there was trout swimming in Dutch Fork Lake.
A news story quoted Judy Campsey, vice president of the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association.
“There were six happy mallards this morning,” she said. “It brought a tear to my eye. They didn’t need a memo, they just found the water and showed up. It’s truly a happy day for us – and for anglers and fishermen, too.”
Chet Krcil, a member of the watershed association, recently told Campsey, “I fished the lake a couple of times in the past two months and caught several 10-inch largemouth bass each time. I expect the fishing, as promised by the Fish and Boat Commission, to get better with each year.”
Campsey wrote in response to an email, “It’s rewarding to drive by and see community residents and visitors once again joyfully engaged in wholesome, affordable, family-friendly outdoor recreational opportunities such as kayaking, canoeing, birding and fishing.”
Asked to reflect on the Ivan anniversary, Donna Riggle, secretary of the Buffalo Creek organization, wrote in an email, “Focusing on the positives … The Buffalo Creek Watershed Association is continuing to work on small enhancements to the area, such as a fishing tackle recycling station and nesting boxes and continues to support larger projects, such as the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s stream bank restorations in the area.
“More hands, hearts and contributions are always needed.”
The nonprofit association aims to install a pier and observation deck that meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and to expand its existing water-quality monitoring program.