Skip to main content

Text / The Legacy Sediment Record within the Munroe Falls Dam Pool, Cuyahoga River, …

Have a question about this item?

Item information.

Title
The Legacy Sediment Record within the Munroe Falls Dam Pool, Cuyahoga River, Summit County, Ohio
Alternative Title
J. Great Lakes Res. 33 (Special Issue 2):127-141 Internat. Assoc. Great Lakes Res., 2007
Creator
John A. Peck, Andrea Mullen, Andrew Moore, and Joseph H. Rumschlag
Date Created and/or Issued
2007
Publication Information
Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University
Contributing Institution
UC Riverside, Library, Water Resources Collections and Archives
Collection
Clearinghouse for Dam Removal Information (CDRI)
Rights Information
Copyrighted
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Description
Scope/Content: Abstract: ABSTRACT. Dams decrease stream gradient and flow velocity, and often trap a stream's sediment load. For 188 years, sedimentation in the Munroe Falls dam pool on the Cuyahoga River, Ohio created a sediment record of both natural and anthropogenic variability. A wooden dam, first constructed in 1817, was replaced with a 3.66-m-high stone dam in 1902 to better serve local industrial needs. Before this dam was removed in 2005, a coring and transect profiling study was undertaken to characterize the dam pool sediments. To a distance of 600 m upstream of the Munroe Falls Dam, only ~30 cm of sediment overlaid the bedrock in the thalweg, indicating that the deep-water channel was an area of sediment transport. However, in the low-velocity shallow-water margins of the dam pool, up to 3 m of organicrich, clayey silt had accumulated above pre-dam floodplain deposits. Past flooding events are recorded in these dam pool sediment deposits by an increase in woody debris and sand. A distinctive lithology having an oily sheen, abundant woody debris, and elevated trace metal concentrations occurs at depth throughout the deposits in the shallow-water margins of the dam pool. 210Pb dating places the top of this layer at approximately 1918. The 1913 flood in northeast Ohio probably deposited this contaminated layer from washed-out upstream sources. A direct relationship between sediment trace metal (Pb, Zn) and magnetic mineral concentrations demonstrates that magnetic parameters can provide rapid pollution assessment of dam pool sediments.
Scope/Content: Dam type: concrete
Scope/Content: Height: 3.66 meters.
Scope/Content: Date constructed: 1817. Date removed: 2005.
Type
text
Identifier
ark:/86086/n2kw5frb
1184
Subject
Dams
Dam retirement
Place
Cuyahoga River, OH
Munroe Falls Dam

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: