Mohawk Dam, located in Jefferson Township,

Coshocton County Coshocton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,612. Its county seat is Coshocton. The county lies within the Appalachian region of the state. The county was formed on January 31, 18 ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

northwest of Nellie, is a dry dam constructed by the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

(USACE) in the mid-1930s for the purpose of flood control on the Walhonding River. The dam is part of the larger 18-county

Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) is a political subdivision of the State of Ohio organized in 1933 to develop and implement a plan for flood reduction and water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed, the state's larges ...

(MWCD). The dam has been in service for 70 years and was recently placed on the USACE's "Urgent" dam safety classification list and plans are currently being drafted that would allocate funds for dam stabilization.

History

Construction of the Mohawk Dam was started in April 1935 and was completed in September 1937. The dam was authorized by the

Flood Control Act of 1938 The Flood Control Act of 1938 was an Act of the United States Congress signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that authorized civil engineering projects such as dams, levees, dikes, and other flood control measures through the ...

and was built as a dry dam along with 13 other dams in the

Muskingum River The Muskingum River (Shawnee: ') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country ...

Watershed for flood control and water conservation. The dam was built right across the right-of-way of the

Walhonding Canal The Walhonding Canal was a canal in Coshocton County, Ohio that was used as a feeder canal for the Ohio and Erie Canal. A small canal, at only long, it was wholly contained within Coshocton County, following the Mohican River from Cavallo south ...

, which ran from Coshocton to Cavallo.US Army Corps of Engineers
Mohawk Dam
Accessed online: 7 October 2007. The dam has always operated as a dry dam, holding back water only during a flood and releasing it slowly downstream. The highest water level ever recorded at the Mohawk Dam was during the flood of January 2005, where the water reached a height of above its normal level.Boyce, John

'' Mount Vernon News''. 29 March 2006. Accessed online: 7 October 2007.

Future

The dam has been in service for 70 years but was only built with the expectation that it would function for around 50 years before sedimentation and erosion weakened the dam. The dam has weakened and several safety issues have arisen, which is why the USACE has placed it on its list of the nation's most at-risk dams, where it ranked seventh most at-risk in 2006. In 2007, the dam was classified as "Urgent", which is the second-highest classification level of the dam safety rating system used by the USACE. This classification indicates that the dam is a high federal priority for repairs since failure of the dam during a flood is moderately uncertain.Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District
Safety a strong concern with dams in Muskingum River Basin
. 11 May 2007. Accessed online: 7 October 2007. The MWCD estimates that if the Mohawk Dam were to fail during a flood, the water normally held back could cost 307 people their lives and up to $449 million in property damage. According to the MWCD, the dam's greatest problem is the inherent downstream seepage that occurs with most earthen dams. In the case of the Mohawk Dam, this condition is exacerbated by the fact that it was built on highly permeable land, which could cause instability if too much water were to seep through the lower part of the dam. A rehabilitation and repair plan to stabilize the structure has not yet been established, nor has an official cost-estimate been prepared. Funds were set aside by Congress in 2006 and 2007 to analyze the current state of the dam and gather data for a rehabilitation report. The MWCD serves as the local sponsor of the rehabilitation projects and must pay 3.45 percent of the costs. The remainder will be paid by the federal government. In order to pay for their share, the MWCD will levy an assessment of the properties in its 18-county district, requiring those property owners to pay for the dam improvements throughout the entire watershed. The total local-share cost to be paid by the MWCD for the work on four of the dams, including the Mohawk Dam, is estimated to be between $95 million and $135 million.

Gallery

File:Mohawk Dam Ohio 2007.jpg, Looking northwest from the top of the dam into the reservoir area behind the dam. File:Mohawk Dam 2005.JPG, An image from the top of the dam during the January 2005 flood when the water reached its highest point in the dam's history.

References

{{MWCDnavbox Buildings and structures in Coshocton County, Ohio Dams in Ohio Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District United States Army Corps of Engineers dams Dams completed in 1937 1935 establishments in Ohio