Tuesday, October 11th, 2016
Wabash sediment removal planned
By Nancy Allen
Wabash River Conservancy officials plan to clear sediment from a roughly 1 mile stretch of the river where it starts south of Mercer-Darke County Line Road, a mile west of state Route 49.
The area was last cleared of sediment in 2004, conservancy president Wally Broering said.
The work is needed to improve farm tile drainage. A 12-inch tile and a 24-inch tile that drain nearby farm fields are about three-quarters full of water due to accumulated sediment that holds back drainage from the two tiles, he said.
"There is also a steel culvert we think may be causing part of the problem," Broering said. "We need to have it surveyed in the next two weeks to find out."
The tube-shaped culvert, located about 2,000 feet from where the river begins, supports a drive used by a farmer to access a farm field, Broering said.
"Creeks and rivers naturally fill in after a while. It's a natural process," Broering said. "There is not a lot of fall in that area. The river runs pretty flat."
If the culvert is also hampering drainage, it may be removed and that area may be dug deeper before it is replaced, Broering said.
The removal will be done from the river bank with a track hoe. The work is estimated to cost about $4,000 and take about three days to complete, he said.
"The ditch is pretty small in that area," he said. "It should be pretty simple."
Broering said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency verbally approved the work, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must approve a nationwide permit for the project. The nationwide permit is needed because the conservancy intends to remove the culvert, dig the area deeper and place it back into the river, Broering said.
Broering plans to apply for the permit in the next few weeks. The application also will include maps, a work plan, the amount of sediment to be removed and other information, Broering said. It usually takes about 45 days for such a permit to be approved, he added.
Created in 1958, the conservancy district assesses property owners along the Wabash River a fee to pay for river work designed to control agricultural and residential flooding in the Cranberry Prairie and Fort Recovery areas. The conservancy maintains three flood-control dams on the river.
The first dam is south of Eldora Speedway in Darke County and is the only one that contains water year-round, the second is on Watkins Road between Township Line and Post roads in Mercer County and the third is on the east side of State Line Road, south of Barger Road in Mercer County.
In other business, Broering reported weeds were sprayed and grass was mowed on all three dams, old fence posts at dam 3 were removed and riprap (large stones) was placed around a field inlet that drains water from the lower part of dam 3.
A USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service official will perform routine annual inspections of the river and its dams later this month or in early November, Broering also reported.
