(Beaver Falls, PA) On a beautiful Thursday evening , The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority hosted a special dinner and tour of it’s Eastvale water treatment facility, including a look at the ongoing progress being made on a repair to the Authority owned and operated Eastvale Dam. Jim Riggio, General manger of the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, hosted the event and conducted the tour. One could tell by the excitement in his voice and his beaming smile, that he was proud of the efforts being made to the 180 plus year old dam that straddles the Beaver River just south of the Eastvale bridge. Riggio has good reason to want to show off the work that his men have been doing since leak underneath the dam was discovered back in April.
Over the course of time, underlying material had been washed away from a 130 foot section on the eastern side of the structure and eventually became problematic when water began running freely under the crest of the dam and out the underside. The reason why was because it was happening at a rate that could have been problematic for the municipal authority’s water supply, a pool of water eighteen feet deep that gathers upstream from the barrier.
Within two days of discovering the breach, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority had a temporary dam constructed of gravel and concrete blocks along the compromised section in place to secure the situation and allow the repairs to commence. While Riggio and his team acquired massive water pumped to have on hand in case they needed to start pumping water back up the river to the intake plant in case the water levels above the dam dropped too low, they were never needed.
Given the magnitude of the project, and the magnitude of impact had it not been handled effectively when the problem occurred, it was easy to see why Riggio, along with the other representatives from the Beaver falls Municipal Authority, were eager to show off their progress. Currently they are preparing to drill holes and drain water from a pool that has formed on the downstream side of the dam. Once that is done, permanent repairs will begin.
