MCD recorded the 12th largest high-water event in its history this week. At peak storage, the five dams together stored a total of 21.2 billion gallons of water.
Peak storage and ranking for each dam:
- Germantown Dam: 6.2 billion gallons – 7th highest storage event
- Englewood Dam: 9.5 billion gallons – 24th highest storage event
- Lockington Dam: 1.2 billion gallons – 29th highest storage event
- Taylorsville Dam: 3.2 billion gallons – 13th highest storage event
- Huffman Dam: 1.1 billion gallons – 17th highest storage event
MCD averages eight high-water events per year. This week’s event was the seventh of the year – and it’s only the first week of April.
MCD defines a high-water event as a time when:
- One or more of MCD’s dams is storing floodwater.
- Or the river level in any one city that MCD protects reaches a stage that requires action, such as more intense river monitoring or closing floodgates on storm sewers.
An average of about 1.75 inches of rain fell across the watershed in a 24-hour period earlier this week. Seven-day rainfall totals are about 4 to 5 inches.
MCD’s five dry dams were all built at the same time between 1918 and 1922. Together, they have temporarily stored floodwaters a total of 1,940 times since their construction.
Posted on: Apr 06, 2018
