KEYSER, W.Va. -- Small watershed flood-control dams in the Potomac Valley of West Virginia provided $5.8 million in flood benefits to people, property, infrastructure and farms during the heavy rain event that began May 13, according to a federal determination.

Seventy-three dams within the Potomac Valley Conservation District provide annual economic and safety benefits to people, farms, livestock, residential and commercial properties, utilities, roads, railroads and bridges. The counties in the district are Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral and Pendleton. 

The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) quantifies both average annual benefits for small watershed dams and also total benefits for 24-hour periods during a storm or flood event. 

Beginning May 13, NRCS estimated that approximately 3.5 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period that affected nine New Creek watershed dams upstream of Keyser. The dams provided a total flood benefit that day that exceeded $500,000. The remaining 64 small watershed flood-control dams within the Potomac Valley Conservation District provided $5.3 million in total benefits for the same 24-hour period.  

Mineral County Commissioner Charles “Dutch” Staggs saw firsthand the benefit the dams provide to local communities.

“I feel confident having those dams there has alleviated some of the flash flooding we saw downstream,” Staggs said. 

While banks were near full and water was high in New Creek, Patterson Creek and the Potomac River, those streams and rivers “didn’t get as bad as they could have been,” Staggs said. Still, areas along New Creek were “inches away” from the risk of serious damage, he said. 

Mineral County officials were on edge in the days after the flood event, he said, when forecasts were calling for more rain.

Without the dams in Mineral County, Luke McKenzie, the county’s OES director, said “we would see flooding on a more frequent basis and on a much wider scale.” He believes the dams are beneficial to residents and critical to the area’s long-term well-being. 

While some Mineral County homes were damaged in last month’s storm event, no homes were a total loss, McKenzie said.  

Many other small watershed dams in Grant, Hardy and Pendleton counties provided $5.3 million in total flood benefits during the storm event. These include dams in the Patterson Creek, South Fork, Lunice Creek, Lost River and North and South Mill Creek watersheds.

The nine small watershed flood control dams located within the New Creek watershed were originally constructed between 1957 and 1968 and significantly reduce downstream flooding for storm events, up to and including a 100-year flood event. While in safe operating condition, the PVCD, with support from the West Virginia Conservation Agency (WVCA), continues to ensure these dams meet the most current USDA-NRCS and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Dam Safety engineering standards through participation in the NRCS watershed rehabilitation program. 

New Creek Site No. 14, which also provides water supply for the city of Keyser, was rehabilitated in 2013. Two other dams in the New Creek watershed, No. 1 and No. 17, are currently in some phase of the rehabilitation process.  

Staggs sees parallels in the May 13th storm event with flooding in 1996, when Westernport, Md., experienced significant flooding, but he doesn’t recall any real flooding in Keyser that year.

Small watershed dams that protect Mineral Countians, including both the New Creek and Patterson Creek dams, “probably help more than anybody realizes, to be honest,” Staggs said.

Across West Virginia, the year-to-date flood benefits for the small watershed flood-control dams is slightly less than $12 million, according to NRCS.      

Partnerships between the WVCA, NRCS, conservation districts like the Potomac Valley Conservation District, and local government entities like the Mineral County Commission and the city of Keyser are essential. These partners play a key role in maintaining the dams, keeping them in proper functioning order, repairing the dams and rehabilitating them after they’ve exceeded their evaluated life.