EMPORIUM — The levee system protecting the borough from seasonal flooding is being included in the National Pilot Levee Program administered through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Funds have been allocated to address small levee systems across the nation that have fallen into disrepair, but few municipalities have signed onto the project.
Borough Manager Don Reed said the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Waterways Bureau has already been working with the borough on the Oak Street flood protection project and ongoing work in the Plank Road Hollow area. The borough was the first municipality to agree to participate in the program and have the documentation necessary to facilitate such an undertaking.
“The National Levee Pilot Program has been allocated to Pennsylvania first because they liked the projects they saw in the state,” Reed said. “A lot of the communities first contacted didn’t want to do it. We were the first to jump on board.”
Emporium’s levee is unique when compared to similar structures built in small towns across Pennsylvania and the nation, according to Reed, who has uncovered documentation of the levee dating back to its construction in 1943. Reed said he forwarded vast amounts of data to the Corps of Engineers, which included old and new maps, correspondence concerning the levee’s construction and maintenance, ordinance documentation, previously compiled studies and photographs.
The levee was constructed following the devastating flooding in 1942, as the Sylvania Corp. was headquartered in town and seen to be vital to the war effort.
“Sylvania was so important to the war effort that they felt they had to protect the whole town,” said Reed.
Originally, the DEP argued that the levee was constructed by locals or Sylvania, but Reed produced the original maps and accompanying documentation showing that Pennsylvania’s Water and Power Resource Board, which was rolled into the DEP at its inception, constructed the levee system.
Construction cost $300,000 at the time — or approximately $4.5 million in today’s money — and was paid for through the Wartime Act. The levee was not constructed by mounding debris and spreading dirt atop it, as was done in many locations. Photographs have been found showing that a one-half-inch to three-quarters-inch thick solid steel wall was buried partway in the ground, with approximately 6 feet of it sticking out. Dirt was then mounded atop that. Portions of that wall are now exposed in some areas, and engineers were able to document its solid construction during their recent visit.
Reed said Corps employees from Jacksonville, Florida, surveyed the entire levee stretching from the Cameron County school building to the AST building, and were surprised at the condition of the levee, now 74 years old. In that time, the levee has never breached despite water levels that would have wreaked havoc on less well-constructed systems.
One of the most interesting discoveries concerns the west end of town, where, if there were to be a breach, it would be the most devastating to the borough. The course of West Creek, which joins the Driftwood Branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek in the borough, was completely changed ahead of levee construction.
The stream used to enter the Driftwood Branch between the Route 120 bridge and the old railroad bridge, known locally as the Black Bridge. The entire stream was moved hundreds of yards to its new entry point to the south, behind the GKN plant and Embassy Powdered Metals. When the stream course was moved, the roadway was also relocated to nearly follow the former stream path. The look of the entire area would be vastly different had the stream’s course not been changed.
A map showing potential flooding hazards indicates that nearly the entire town of Emporium would be underwater if a breach occurred on the West End. The river drops 27 feet between the school property and AST. The borough’s land is sloped, with the southeastern corner much lower than the northwestern. Any water entering in the west would spread out and flow through downtown on its way to rejoin the creek.
Reed said that the four engineers who surveyed the levee will put together a report of all the issues and encroachments discovered, and put together a plan that prioritizes the problems so borough officials can focus on the most worrying issues.
“For a levee as old as it is, they were surprised by how consistently wide it is throughout its length — about 15-feet, on average,” Reed said. “It’s 74 years old, but it’s still a viable structure. It has major problems, but we’ve never had a breech.”
Reed believes that participation early in the pilot program will give the borough a better chance of securing funding for the repairs identified through this preliminary study.
“We may still need an engineering study after this, which would show us how to fix the problems that have been identified,” he said. “We’ll have an advantage, though, because our project will have already been approved by the Army Corps and DEP.”
Without the levee, which is not certified and not sponsored by any specific governmental agency, borough businesses and residents would have to pay flood insurance on most properties.
“In a perfect world, Emporium would have been built on the hill, but it’s not,” Reed said. “We have to worry about the structures and the people who live here. The levee’s not going anywhere. It was built well and in a way that it can’t just be pulled out.”
