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Posted: April 6, 2018

MCD records 12th largest
high-water event

MCD recorded the 12^th 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 – 7^th highest storage event
• Englewood Dam: 9.5 billion gallons – 24^th highest storage event
• Lockington Dam: 1.2 billion gallons – 29^th highest storage event
• Taylorsville Dam: 3.2 billion gallons – 13^th highest storage event
• Huffman Dam: 1.1 billion gallons – 17^th 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.