Ohio History Journal

A HISTORY OF FLOOD CONTROL IN OHIO

 

 

BY ARTHUR E. MORGAN AND C. A. BOCK

The great ice cap, which covered northeastern North

America during the Glacial period, is estimated to have

been about two miles thick in the region north-east of

the Great Lakes. The weight of this great mass caused

it to creep gradually toward the ocean on the east and

toward the south, where the pressure was less.

In this relentless advance it ground off the hill tops

and filled up the valleys, changing the region south of

the Great Lakes from one of hills and valleys to a broad

plain. The ice sheet came to an end some distance north

of the Ohio River, and from its margin southward the

hills remained undisturbed. The hilly country around

Cincinnati furnishes a picture of what much of the State

would be like, but for the glaciers.

The moving mass of ice, with its burden of boulders,

gravel and powdered rock, wiped out old river valleys,

changed the courses of streams, and quite remade the

surface geography of Ohio. Some of the old river val-

leys, as the Miami River north and south of Dayton, and

the Mad River east of Dayton, were filled in with this

glacial debris to a depth of more than two hundred feet.

In some parts a new surface soil was left, composed

of this ground-up rock, known as glacial till. On other

great areas the limestone rock was left bare. As the

years passed, the lime was leached out by the rains, and

the remaining impurities of the limestone were left be-

hind to form the fertile residual soils of central Ohio.

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  475

Not only did the ice sheet change the course of rivers,

but it largely wiped out the local drainage. When white

men first visited the central part of the state they found

a densely wooded plain, poorly drained in many parts,

and breeding mosquitoes and other insect pests. The

malaria or "fever and ague" of the early days was car-

ried by mosquitoes which bred in these undrained

swamps.

The last hundred years has seen the almost complete

elimination of swamps from Ohio. First by open ditches

and then by tiling, Ohio farmers have brought almost

the whole of the flat lands of the state into profitable cul-

tivation. Little by little a body of laws and of judicial

decisions has grown up to define and to facilitate the

drainage development until the drainage code of Ohio

has become voluminous and comprehensive, if not well

organized. The invention and building of excavating

machinery in Ohio for digging the ditches has developed

into thriving industries in Cleveland, Bucyrus, Marion

and Findlay, that now find markets for their product all

over the world, and the manufacture of drain tile has

contributed to making Ohio the foremost state in the

ceramic industry.

But while the farm land was being reclaimed, flood

conditions in the main rivers were only becoming ag-

gravated. Under primitive conditions the flat undrained

woods served as storage basins to retard the flow of

rain water into the rivers. The clearing of the land,

and its drainage through large open canals tended to

hasten the flow of storm water directly into the larger

streams.

Omitting the Ohio River from consideration for the

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476      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

time being, flood conditions in Ohio rivers are due

largely to the lay of the land left by the glaciers. The

old deep gorges were filled with glacial debris, and in

place of narrow, deep gorges we have flat valleys

through which the present rivers wind their crooked

way.

Like all other rivers, these stream channels are but

the paths worn by water flowing down hill along the line

of least resistance. The sizes of the stream channels

are only the chance results of the working of natural

forces. Some rivers have channels far too large for the

most extreme flood flow, like the Grand Canyon in Ari-

zona, while others are too small to care for even or-

dinary freshets. The Miami, Mad, Stillwater and Scioto

Rivers have dug channels for themselves about large

enough to carry the ordinary high water occurring each

spring, but only enough to carry about one-tenth of the

flow of the most extreme floods. The flow in streams

under natural conditions varies greatly. For instance,

the low water flow in the Miami River at Dayton is at

times less than 250 cubic feet per second, while in March,

1913, the flood flow was approximately 250,000 cubic

feet per second.  Such streams during high water

periods have a tendency to build flat flood plains by the

deposits from their muddy waters, producing land of

great fertility.

In the first settlement of the country it was natural

that men should locate along the rivers, because, in the

absence of roads, the rivers were the first highways. It

is fortunate that this was so, because modern industry

and modern civilization demand water in such quantities

as can be furnished only by streams of considerable

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  477

volume. The tendency has been not only to improve

the fertile valley bottoms for cultivation, but to build

factories, railroads and towns along the river banks.

Many of Ohio's cities and villages have been built, at

least in part, upon the flat bottom lands along the rivers.

In times of heavy rainfall the rivers overflow these bot-

toms, and there is great damage to property, and some-

times a great loss of life. Cincinnati, Portsmouth and

Marietta on the Ohio River; Piqua, Troy, Dayton, Mid-

dletown and Hamilton on the Miami; Springfield on

Buck Creek; Kenton, Columbus, Circleville and Chilli-

cothe on the Scioto; Delaware on the Olentangy; New-

ark on the Licking; Zanesville and McConnelsville on

the Muskingum; Massillon on the Tuscarawas; Alliance

on the Mahoning; Cleveland on the Cuyahoga; Tiffin

and Fremont on the Sandusky; Defiance and Toledo on

the Maumee; Findlay on the Blanchard; Lima on Ot-

tawa River; Fostoria on Portage River; Xenia on Shaw-

nee Creek -- all these are examples of Ohio cities built

partly within the flood plains of rivers, and all have

been subject to damage from floods.

While floods in Ohio Rivers were perhaps increased

by drainage operations, yet they began to trouble the

inhabitants before drainage operations had begun. Day-

ton was founded in 1796, and in 1805, while the country

was still a wilderness, a flood occurred on the Miami

River, which did great damage to the new settlement,

and which was larger than any later flood for more than

a hundred years. In 1814 the Miami, at Dayton, again

overflowed its banks 'and destroyed the levees built just

after the 1805 flood. Other floods of considerable magni-

tude occurred in 1828, 1832, 1847, 1866, 1886, 1897 and

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478      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

1898. Similarly destructive floods occurred in Colum-

bus in 1828, 1838, 1865, 1870, 1883 and 1898. Other

cities also suffered serious damage from inundation

from time to time, but in these early floods the damage

was less severe because of the limited industrial devel-

opment and loss of life not so great because the popula-

tion was less dense. Furthermore in those days a flood

was regarded more as being an act of providence which

was not in the province of man to control, and efforts

to ameliorate or prevent flood conditions were limited

to purely local projects of building levees or slight im-

provement of existing channels, and these improvements

more often were designed solely to prevent the overflow

of agricultural lands rather than to protect against loss

of life and damage to property in cities and towns.

During the past fifty years the concentration of pop-

ulation and industries on the flat lands of river flood

plains in Ohio has accelerated with tremendous rapidity,

and the intense use of such lands has created flood prob-

lems which, with the increasing value of the property,

become increasingly difficult to solve. The real meaning

of this growing flood menace, however, had been only

vaguely sensed by a few hydraulic engineers in the

country who had made some study of floods in an inci-

dental way, and not at all by the people at large, until

the great floods of 1913 demonstrated the terrible pos-

sibilities of such situations. These floods were so de-

structive to life and property and so widespread over

the state as to cause considerable investigation into pos-

sible methods of protection against future flood disas-

ters. The unprecedented stages and extreme sudden-

ness of their occurrence were particularly disastrous in

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  479

the Scioto and Miami valleys and gave rise to a strong

public sentiment in Columbus, Dayton and other cities

that such calamities must not be permitted to recur.

On the Ohio river itself the feeling of alarm was not so

intense, since the flood crest arrived more slowly and

the river cities had long been accustomed to suffer

periodical damage from inundations. Local engineers,

county, city and state officials and Federal Government

engineers began to take a lively interest in flood control

problems and to study methods of relief.

Thus as part of the general conquest of the land, men

now are undertaking to control these floods, so that

life and property will no longer be endangered. In the

end, life and property are safe and the river presents one

more case of man's mastery of his environment. As the

most striking example of this kind of mastery in Ohio, a

brief sketch will be given of the Miami Valley flood con-

trol project.

THE MIAMI PROJECT

The City of Dayton was settled in 1796, and in 1805

the first serious flood occurred, which covered most of

the settlement. A small levee was built to protect from

a recurrence, but it was washed out very soon. There-

after for more than a century the city would be flooded

from time to time, and after the flood the levees would

be strengthened to a point where the people would be

assured of protection. About 1910 a flood control pro-

gram was undertaken by the city, which was supposed

to afford protection against the greatest possible flood.

Bonds had been issued and contracts let, and the con-

tractor was just about to begin work when the great

flood of 1913 swept away the contractor's equipment,

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  481

and demonstrated again that the proposed flood control

would have been completely inadequate.

The experience of Dayton had been repeated in

nearly all the cities of the Miami Valley, from Piqua on

the north to Hamilton on the south, where successive

floods had been followed by protective works which

were relied upon for future security.

On the 23rd, 24th and 25th of March, 1913, a rain-

storm occurred over Ohio and Indiana, which exceeded

in area and intensity any that occurred since the

settlement of this section. The center of this storm

area was over the Miami Valley, where as much as ten

inches of rain fell on March 24th and 25th. The

ground was still saturated from rains earlier in

the year, and between 80 and 90%  of this rain-

fall at once flowed into the rivers. In the cities

on the Miami River damage to property amounted

to more than $100,000,000, and about 400 lives were

lost. Columbus, on the Scioto River, suffered somewhat

less severely, and nearly every town and city in southern

Ohio, which occupied river bottom land, was damaged.

For several weeks everyone's attention was directed

to steps for immediate relief, but as the debris and mud

were cleared away and the hungry were fed, a demand

developed for permanent protection. In Dayton a "flood

prevention" committee was organized, and John H. Pat-

terson, President of the National Cash Register Com-

pany, was made chairman. He was represented on the

committee by Edward A. Deeds, Vice President of the

National Cash Register Company, who later was made

chairman of the committee, and was the guiding spirit

of the whole flood prevention program. The other mem-

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482       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

bers of the committee were Walter Worman, Walter S.

Kidder, Edward W. Hanley, H. E. Talbott, John W.

Stoddard, Adam Schantz and Frank Huffman.

One of the first acts of the Flood Prevention Com-

mittee was to pass a resolution:

* * * that there be prompt and definite action to deter-

mine the cause of the inundation of the city of Dayton on March

25, 1913, and to apply the maximum of human knowledge and

scientific skill with the necessary measure of financial resources

to prevent the recurrence of a similar calamity.

 

*    *    *    *   *    *    *    *   *

That to enable this committee to take up the vast program of

surveys, plans, specifications, condemnations, contracts, and con-

struction incidental to and connected with the work of protection

of life and property, to allay the fears and misgivings of the

people, and to reinstate the beautiful city of Dayton as an at-

tractive location for home life, happiness, and commercial pres-

tige and success, there shall be provided a Flood Prevention

Fund of $2,000,000.

This action   resulted in the establishment of a

$2,000,000 fund, from subscriptions by the citizens of

Dayton; the employment of the Morgan Engineering

Company to make a thorough investigation and plans

for flood control; and the organization of the Miami

Valley Flood Prevention Association. The work done

by this valley association was naturally of a very gen-

eral character, and its activities did not continue beyond

several meetings. Its chief service was to bring to-

gether from the various parts of the valley those men

who were taking a potential interest in the flood control

cause, and to enlist the cooperation of the various cities

in the valley, for the working out of effective measures

for flood control.

Soon after the 1913 flood numerous plans were sug-

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  483

gested for flood protection. Many of these, though hav-

ing the guise of engineering reports, were developed

from meager and inaccurate data and were at once im-

practical and wholly inadequate. The public demand

for quick action operated in a measure to make some

of these immature proposals a hindrance to the working

out of an effective plan for the entire valley. A report

of a different character was submitted to the Chief En-

gineers of the U. S. Army1 by a board of army en-

gineers, which among other things, set forth the neces-

sity of making complete surveys and investigations be-

fore the adoption of any plan.

It was along these lines that the work at Dayton was

undertaken, one of the first of the engineer's reports2

stating that "*  *  *  it has been our aim to investi-

gate every possible method of flood protection in

order to be assured that no possibilities are overlooked."

This policy of thorough investigation was largely re-

sponsible for the great forward stride made in the prog-

ress of flood control in Ohio. The aim of this work was,

in general, to make a complete and coordinated survey

of flood conditions in the Miami Valley, to develop a

comprehensive plan of protection from further flood

destruction, to secure the adoption of such a plan by the

several cities and parts of counties involved, and to pro-

vide the necessary legal machinery by which such a

project could be organized, financed and properly exe-

cuted.

A thorough study of the storm rainfall records of the

 

1 Report to Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, May 26, 1913, by Special

Board of Army Engineers.

2 Preliminary Report of Morgan Engineering Company, Oct. 3, 1913.

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484      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Eastern United States developed that while the 1913

precipitation was unusually intense and covered a large

area, it was not impossible for a somewhat greater rain-

fall to occur on a similar area. Such extreme rainfalls

would come only at long intervals, but it was felt in the

Miami Valley that any flood control works to be built

should now be made adequate to give complete protec-

tion.

Contrary to the general expectation, it was found

that a system of retarding reservoirs, to hold back ex-

cessive flood waters, combined with some channel im-

provement through the cities and towns, afforded the

best plan for flood protection in the valley. It was also

found that while it was financially impossible for any

one of the cities alone to secure complete protection, a

coordinated system of control for the valley was en-

tirely feasible. When these findings were made known

to the Flood Prevention Committee by their engineers,

four great obstacles, interwoven with the intricate com-

plications of many minor difficulties, presented them-

selves. These were, briefly:

(1) Local oppositions caused by ignorance or mis-

understanding of the plans.

(2) Lack of cooperation among various cities af-

fected.

(3) A general prejudice, somewhat vague but very

definite in its effect, against the use of reservoirs for

controlling floods.

(4) No laws existed in Ohio under which such a

project could be legally organized, financed, executed

and maintained.

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  485

An educational campaign was immediately instituted

in the Valley to overcome the first three difficulties.

Wide publicity was given the plans in local newspapers

and magazines, and many talks illustrated with slides,

maps, diagrams and statistics, were given at public

places and every opportunity possible afforded for the

public to become informed. A working model was made

of one of the proposed retarding reservoirs, and this

photographed in action. Both the model and the picture

of its operation were exhibited in many places. One of

the most stubborn phases of the opposition was that of

farmers living in or near the proposed retarding basins,

based largely upon the misrepresentation of local attor-

neys that not only would their lands be confiscated but

they would be taxed as well, to carry out the project.

Early in the investigations the engineers requested

the appointment of a board of consulting engineers,

which was composed of nationally known experts. The

independent investigation of these men furnished a solid

moral backing. The thorough analyses of the plans

made by one member of the board*, and his whole-

hearted support of them, were particularly useful in

combating the prejudice against dams, which owed its

origin largely to some previous reports by government

engineers questioning the advisability of using retard-

ing dams for flood control on the upper Ohio river

tributaries.

The numerous laws of Ohio governing the construc-

tion of ditches, bridges, sewers, levees, channels, dams

or other structures that might be a part of an extensive

 

* Late General H. M. Chittenden, Consulting Engineer to Flood Pre-

vention Committee.

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EXPLANATORY NOTE

The diagram on the page opposite shows the successive steps

taken under the Conservancy Law of Ohio from the time the

petition for the organization of the district is filed until the con-

struction of the works is begun.

The arrows in each case start at the party taking the action

and point to the party with whom the action is taken. For ex-

ample -- Beginning at the upper left-hand part of the dia-

gram, and following the first two arrows from left to right, it

will be seen that action under the law is started by the prop-

erty owners filing a petition and bond with the court. Following

the third arrow from right to left, we see that the court then

publishes notice of a hearing on the petition. Thereupon, fol-

lowing the fourth arrow from left to right, we see that the prop-

erty owners may file objections with the court to the organiza-

tion of the district, and so on.

A brief inspection of the diagram will show that the funda-

mental principles involved in the law are few and simple. The

Court of Common Pleas exercises the most important functions

in the proceeding. Certain matters of procedure are handled

for the court by the Directors who act as the business managers

of the district, and by the Appraisers. Both the Directors and

Appraisers are appointed by the Court and their principal acts

are subject to the approval of the Court.

(487)

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488      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

flood control system had been individually conceived

and enacted for particular limited problems and local

necessities, and were wholly lacking in the compre-

hensive provisions required for a large cooperative un-

dertaking. They did not furnish legal machinery for

uniting the many interests needing flood protection into

an effective organization, provided no means for work-

ing out and officially adopting a satisfactory plan, of-

fered no means for safeguarding individual and col-

lective interests and rights, and established no practical

basis for an equitable distribution of the cost of so large

an undertaking. Neither did the existing laws provide

authority for enforcing the requirements of such a

project. This situation resulted in the drafting of the

"Conservancy Act of Ohio."

The problem of preparing this law was approached

from the engineers' point of view. The law must be de-

signed to provide wide freedom of action to carry out

any type of improvement; an effective agency for get-

ting results, such as corporation form of management;

freedom from politics; governmental powers, such as

right of eminent domain; police powers and taxing pow-

ers; harmony with existing laws; cooperation among

governmental units and private organizations; control

over stream obstructions and over the use of water;

and general adaptability suitable to any situation and

must be comprehensive enough so as not to need amend-

ment for problems that might arise in other parts of the

state. As finally enacted on March 17, 1914, the Con-

servancy Act provides for the establishment of con-

servancy districts in Ohio, through petition of property

owners to the court of common pleas of any county

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  489

wholly or partly within the proposed district, for any or

all of the following purposes:

(a)  preventing floods;

(b) regulating stream channels by changing, wi-

dening, and deepening the same;

(c)      reclaiming or filling wet and overflowed lands;

(d)      providing for irrigation where it may be

needed;

(e)      regulating the flow of streams;

(f)      diverting, or in whole or in part eliminating

water courses; and incident to such purposes and to

enable their accomplishment, to straighten, widen,

deepen, change, divert, or change the course or terminus

of, any natural or artificial water course; to build res-

ervoirs, canals, levees, walls, embankments, bridges, or

dams; to maintain, operate and repair any of the con-

struction herein named; and to do all other things nec-

essary for the fulfillment of the purposes of this act.

A conservancy district may be established by a ma-

jority decision of a court consisting of one common pleas

judge from each county having land in the district. This

Court becomes the "Conservancy Court" of that dis-

trict, and appoints a board of three directors to manage

the district, who in turn may employ engineers, attor-

neys and other assistants as deemed necessary. A plan

for the improvement is prepared by the chief engineer

and passed upon by the board of directors, is submitted

to a formal hearing of objections and then subject to

the approval of the court. An appraisal of benefits and

damages resulting from the execution of the proposed

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490      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

plan is made by a board of three appraisers appointed

by the conservancy court. This appraisal is also sub-

ject to a hearing of exceptions before it can be approved

by the court for the issue of the bonds to finance the

construction. Any owner has the right to appeal from

his award of benefits or damages. No property can be

confiscated, -- and damage must be paid where damage

is sustained. The diagram on page 15 shows the suc-

cessive steps in the operation of the Conservancy Act.

The law was rigidly tested as to constitutionality, and

successfully withstood several attempts for its repeal

and amendment. Only the most earnest efforts of the

Flood Prevention Committee and its engineers, backed

by newspapers, churches, chambers of commerce and

other institutions, made it possible to preserve the law

in its complete original form through these political

struggles in the legislature. Ohio thus was provided

with the most comprehensive and effective legal machin-

ery in this country for dealing with any water control

or conservation problem that might arise.

On the day following the signing of the Conservancy

Act by Governor Cox a petition was filed for the estab-

lishment of the Miami Conservancy District. A court

of ten common pleas judges was convened on March 20,

1914, to hear this petition, and an attendance of over

2000 people evidenced the wide interest in the proceed-

ings. Attorneys for the opposition entered objections

to the jurisdiction of the court, raised questions of con-

stitutionality of the Act and secured some delay, and on

April 18 the court voted 5 to 4 in overruling all the ob-

jections, one judge being absent. Since a vote of 6, or

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio  491

a majority of the ten judges was required, the result

was a failure to establish the district. This was followed

by much legal procedure, by which the constitutionality

of the Act was firmly established and during which the

working out of engineering and construction features

went steadily forward. On June 28, 1915, the court

formally created the Miami Conservancy District and

appointed as its directors Colonel Edward A. Deeds,

Henry M. Allen and Gordon S. Rentschler. The di-

rectors immediately arranged for the engineers of the

Flood Prevention Committee to continue the work,

and appointed other necessary assistants. In January,

1916, the district was furnished a splendid home in the

newly completed Conservancy Building in Dayton pre-

sented to the project by Colonel Deeds. This housed

the administrative, engineering and appraisal forces of

the district and is now being used as a permanent re-

pository for the records. It stands on the bank of the

Miami River as a fitting monument to the earnest efforts

of its donor and to the great pioneering work of the

valley for progress in flood control.

In developing and perfecting plans for the flood con-

trol system for the Miami Valley, probably the most ex-

tensive and thorough investigation ever undertaken of

rainfall and floods, flow of water in open channels, the

effects of a system of combined reservoirs and channel

improvement, and allied hydraulic problems, was made.

All available related data was secured from federal gov-

ernment, state and private sources and thoroughly

analyzed, and considerable information from foreign

countries was investigated. The results of these studies

• 18
 

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio           493

have been largely set forth in a series of ten technical

reports issued by the District.*

These volumes make available to the resident of the

state and to the technical world at large much data that

will have considerable usefulness in other similar

projects.

A complete plan for the control of floods in the

Miami Valley was submitted to the board of directors

of the district by the chief engineer early in 1916, and

the letter of transmittal stated, in part:

Following the organization of The Miami Conservancy Dis-

trict by order of the court on the 28th of June, 1915, the appoint-

ment of your board on the 28th of June, 1915, as the board of

directors of the district, and the appointment dated the 7th of

July, 1915, of the undersigned as chief engineer of the district,

with instructions to prepare a plan for the protection of the dis-

trict from floods; he proceeded to prepare such a plan, which is

herewith presented for your consideration, with the recommenda-

tion that it be adopted as the Official Plan of The Miami Con-

servancy District, as provided for in Section 12 of the Conserv-

ancy Act of Ohio. In the preparation of the plan, your engineers

have supplemented and completed the data secured and the work

done by The Morgan Engineering Company under the direction

of The Dayton Flood Prevention Committee. * * *

When this plan is carried into effect the Miami Valley, in our

opinion, will be permanently protected from serious damage by

flood. In its necessity for flood prevention, the valley is not

unique. Wherever, along the rivers of this country, industrial

and agricultural development reaches a high stage, the protection

of these interests from damage by uncontrolled flood waters be-

comes necessary, and must be secured before permanent pros-

perity is established.

 

* Technical Reports, Miami Conservancy District; I  The Miami

Valley and the 1913 Flood, II History of the Miami Flood Control

Project, III Hydraulic Jump and Backwater Curves, IV Calculation of

Flow in Open Channels, V Storm Rainfall of the Eastern United States,

VI Contract Forms and Specifications, VII Hydraulics of the Miami

Flood Control Project, VIII Rainfall and Runoff in the Miami Valley, IX

The Accounting and Cost Keeping System of the Department of Engineer-

ing and Construction, and X Construction Plant and Methods as used

on the Miami Conservancy Project.

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494      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

In the preparation of the plan a considerable amount of orig-

inal engineering investigation has been carried on by the engineer-

ing force. * * *

 

This report was printed in three volumes and accom-

panied by two volumes of photographic reproductions

and drawings. It included a description of the plan, list

of properties affected, specifications, plans, estimates of

quantities and cost, and much detailed information for

use in constructing the works. This plan was adopted

by the board of directors as the Official Plan of the dis-

trict on May 10, 1916.

On October 3, 1916, the conservancy court, composed

of nine common pleas judges, convened in Dayton for a

public hearing on objections to the plan. This hearing

was notable on account of the large amount of expert

testimony submitted and because of the most complete

and orderly presentation and explanation of the plan by

the engineers of the district. It continued over a period

of seven weeks and the testimony fills over 3000 type-

written pages. On one occasion the chief engineer for

five consecutive days replied to a continuous cross-ex-

amination by the opposing attorneys. Added to his tes-

timony was that of T. W. Jaycox, consulting engineer

of Denver, with extended experience in the construction

of earth dams in the West; of F. J. Fischer, construction

engineer of the Los Angeles Water Supply Commission;

of Brigadier-General William H. Bixby, former Chief

of Engineers, U.S. Army; of Daniel W. Mead, hy-

draulic engineer of Madison, Wisconsin; and of Briga-

dier-General H. M. Chittenden, of Seattle, Washington,

also former Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army. These

engineers expressed unqualified approval of the official

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A History of Flood Control in Ohio          495

plan. General Chittenden stated on the stand that this

plan had been worked out with more care and thorough-

ness than any engineering project of which he had any

knowledge. He took occasion to say particularly that

the Panama Canal was not an exception. On November

24, 1916, the court formally approved the official plan.

A report subsequently issued by the Ohio Flood

Board of Army Engineers made the following refer-

ences to the official plan:

It is probable that the best protection for Dayton under exist-

ing conditions would be dams, one each on the Stillwater, Upper

Miami, and Mad Rivers, just above Dayton, so designed as to

reduce the maximum standard storm discharge at Dayton to an

amount which can be economically and safely cared for by im-

provement of the Dayton channel, which is probably not less than

100,000 second feet.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Adequacy of the Plans -- It was felt by those concerned that

a project involving such a large sum, in order to justify the ex-

penditure, should furnish as complete protection as possible. Re-

alizing this the conservancy district has based the reservoir ca-

pacities and channel improvements upon a standard storm

greater in intensity than that of 1913. The standard storm was

adopted after an exhaustive search covering the records of all

storms east of the Rocky Mountains so far as the U. S. Weather

Bureau files record them. *                   *                *

 

*    *    *     *                                             *        *    *    *     *

Spillways -- In order that the dams shall not be overtopped

their safety is secured by means of spillways which are adequate

to care for a storm far in excess of the standard storm.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

The reservoirs proposed above Dayton are well located to se-

cure the maximum benefit for that city. They are sufficiently

near to control all but 70 square miles of the entire drainage area

above Dayton. This 70 miles is not believed to be extensive

enough to cause any danger to Dayton due to severe local storms.

• 22
 

496      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

* * * While the plan does not include the entire valley, it

aims to provide protection for all places where such protection

is most urgently needed so far as can be economically justi-

fied. * * *"

The next task before the district was the appraisal

of the benefit and damages to be assessed against the

properties affected by the execution of the plan. This

was a gigantic job by reason of the many thousands of

pieces of property involved. The work had already

been outlined and methods and principles to be followed

in its accomplishment had been developed by the en-

gineers during the legal proceedings leading to the ap-

proval of the plan. The board of appraisers hired a

large corps of assistants to carry out the listing, exam-

ination and description of properties. Their report was

filed with the court in May, 1917. It furnished an up-

to-date valuation of about 65,000 pieces of property and

stated in each case the appraisal of benefits or damage

entailed by each parcel from the execution of the plan.

The court concluded its hearings on the appraisal report

in July, 1917, and issued a decree approving benefits in

the amount of $77,000,000. This was about three times

the estimated cost of the project.

Conditions for financing were very unfavorable be-

cause the war was absorbing practically all available re-

sources. The National City Company, however, indi-

cated its willingness to underwrite the bond issue if the

U. S. Secretary of the Treasury offered no objection to

financing the work at this time. The situation was ex-

plained to Mr. McAdoo, who replied:

You call attention to the fact that the flood of March, 1913,

destroyed four hundred lives, left forty bereft of reason, and

caused a property loss approximating one hundred million dol-

• 23
 

A History of Flood Control in Ohio      497

 

lars, and that the loss of life would probably have been thousands

had the flood occurred later in the morning. * * *

Both from what you tell me and from my general knowledge

of the situation, I am of the opinion that the preservation of

human life and the public welfare are concerned in this con-

servancy project, and that I ought not to offer any objection to its

prompt completion.

Permit me to express my appreciation of your patriotic action

in consulting me concerning this matter and requesting my opin-

ion before attempting to finance this work at this time. * * *

The first bonds issued, totaling $15,000,000, were

placed on the market in December, 1917.

An effort was made to let the construction of the

project by contract. On account of war conditions,

however, all proposals tendered on the major part of

the project were irregular, the contractors going so far

in qualifications to protect themselves against possible

contingencies that the district could gain nothing by

awarding the work to them. Thus it was decided that

the district would accomplish the construction with

forces employed directly by the district and with equip-

ment purchased for the purpose.

The works to be constructed included extensive chan-

nel deepening, widening, and straightening at Dayton,

Hamilton and other locations, the building of five large

earth dams with concrete outlet and spillway works, the

relocation of three steam railroads and one electric rail-

way for considerable distances, and the building of

various bridges, roads, walls, bank revetment, sewers,

water lines, power lines, and incidental works. The

channel improvements required over five million cubic

yards of excavation and half that amount in levee em-

bankments, and the dams required the placing of over

ten million cubic yards in embankment. The project

• 24
 

498      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

naturally divided into seven major construction units,

of which the most widely separated were about 75 miles

apart. Being centrally located, Dayton was selected for

the general headquarters of the construction organiza-

tion. Special telephone lines were built to establish di-

rect communication with the various units.

In order to accomplish the work within a reasonable

time it was necessary to secure adequate and effective

machinery, tools and plant. This included a large va-

riety of equipment such as large dredge pumps, electric

motors, pipes, railroad locomotives, dump cars, steam

and electric hoists, trucks, derricks, concrete mixers,

complete gravel washing and screening plants, drilling

rigs, cable ways, etc. The excavating machinery in-

cluded 21 dragline machines, ranging in size from small

machines with only a 30-foot boom to 150-ton machines

with 3 to 5 cubic-yard buckets and a reach of 100 to 135

feet. At Dayton the equipment included four large river

scows, 80 to 120 feet long, for hauling materials exca-

vated from the channels, and for mounting one of the

large excavators, and a river type 20 ft. by 70 ft. steam-

boat for moving the river equipment. The value of this

construction equipment approached $2,000,000.

In order to furnish adequate facilities for repairs and

to insure the proper maintenance of the construction

plant, a central shop was established in Dayton, with a

general warehouse adjacent, which carried large stock

of supplies, tools, repair parts and small equipment.

Also a garage and auto repair shop furnished facilities

for hauling, and for maintaining the fleet of trucks and

automobiles used on the project. These facilities proved

invaluable not only in reducing the cost of repairs but

• 25
 

The Miami Project            499

in the great amount of time saved on the work in re-

ducing delays for repairs to a minimum.

During the period of the United States' participation

in the World War, labor rates were high and it was

difficult to get and retain efficient workmen. An em-

ployment bureau was established at the Dayton head-

quarters and systematic records kept of the labor used

on the job. No camps were established in the cities but

for the work at the dams comfortable housing was fur-

nished for the workmen by building suitable quarters at

each dam site. These villages were built to meet the re-

quirements of the several jobs and included rooming

houses and bunkhouses for single men, as well as houses

for married men and their families, and were equipped

with water supply, light and sewerage. Each village

was provided with a store, a mess hall and a school

building, and special teachers were employed by the dis-

trict to insure adequate facilities for the children of the

workmen. The district also employed a physician to

take care of medical needs of its employees. A central

commissary plant, including a bakery, cold storage and

ice plant, located at the Taylorsville Dam, distributed

bread, meat and other supplies to the various jobs. At

the completion of the project the buildings in these vil-

lages were for the most part sold and dismantled. Those

at the Englewood Dam, however, were left on the site

and are now occupied and form the nucleus of a thriv-

ing permanent community.

Considerable land was required for right of way on

which to build the dams, levees and other structures.

Furthermore it was necessary to buy the right to flood

other lands within the reservoir basins. Many owners

• 26
 

(500)

• 27
 

A History of Flood Control in Ohio  501

objected to selling such flood easements and preferred

to sell their land outright to the district. In the Huff-

man basin it was found necessary to purchase the entire

town of Osborn, which was moved to a new location.

The district thus acquired real estate to the value of

over $7,000,000. A land department was installed to

administer this property. Such real estate as is not re-

quired permanently by this district is being sold as rap-

idly as feasible, retaining the necessary flood easements.

The execution of the plan carried with it many inci-

dental improvements of great value to the communities

affected, and which otherwise would have been impos-

sible of attainment, or long delayed. These included

the providing of park areas, highway and street im-

provements, bridge improvements and the reservation at

the several retarding basins of extensive beautiful tim-

bered areas for public park purposes. At Hamilton it

made possible the development of a water power and

factory site which induced the building of a large fac-

tory in that city.

The size of the project and the unique character of

its works has attracted considerable attention in this

country and Europe. Other reasons for the wide local

interest are that it is one of the largest public works

ever undertaken in Ohio, that it will influence in a

marked degree the development of the Miami Valley,

that it occasioned the enactment of the most complete

and practically useful conservancy law in use in this

country at the time, and that it is the first project of

considerable size in this country to utilize the system of

combined retarding basins and channel improvement for

flood control only. On account of the large number of

• 28
 

(502)

• 29
 

A History of Flood Control in Ohio        503 visitors inspecting the works a concrete tablet, like that shown on page 502, was erected at each of the dams. In order to serve as a permanent reminder of the sole purpose for which the dams were built, a stone was set at each site, or incorporated in the structure, bearing the following inscription: The dams of the Miami Conservancy District are for flood prevention purposes. Their use for power development or for storage would be a menace to the cities below.

• 30