Upper Ohio River, PA, WV, OH, MD & NY - Addressing water use through collaboration
The Ohio River Basin encompasses numerous large river systems including the Allegheny, Green, Monongahela, Tennessee, Wabash, and many other rivers. The Ohio River delivers more than 60 percent of the flow of the Mississippi River at their confluence.
With competing needs and a changing availability and seasonality of water flows in the Ohio River, a collaboration among many partners including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy is exploring opportunities to change reservoir operations to increase the environmental benefits provided by existing water resources infrastructure.
Allegheny River Lock and Dam 9 - USACE, The Nature Conservancy, and other partners have implemented screening assessments of hydrologic alteration at more than 12 reservoirs located primarily in the Allegheny, Monongahela, Kanawha, and Muskingum watersheds (photo by Ben Sakmar, USACE).
Youghioheny River - The Youghiogheny is a tributary to Upper Ohio River. Photo is taken looking downstream from Dimple Rock and shows a patch of river scour habitat on the right (USACE photo).
Kinzua Dam and Allegheny River Reservoir - Allegheny River Reservoir is located in Northwestern Pennsylvania, in the headwaters of the Allegheny River. It is one of sixteen multi-purpose flood risk management reservoirs managed by Pittsburgh District, USACE, in the Upper Ohio River basin (USACE photo).
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Story
The Ohio River Basin is a water-rich area, with numerous large river systems including the Allegheny, Green, Monongahela, Tennessee, Cumberland, Kanawha, and Wabash Rivers, and many others. As a result, the Ohio River delivers more than 60 percent of the flow of the Mississippi River at their confluence. The combination of rapidly changing public needs in this region, combined with projected changes in water availability and timing related to a changing climate, make partnerships to explore opportunities to increase project benefits particularly important. Read More
Partners
- Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- Seneca Nation of Indians
- The Nature Conservancy - Pennsylvania Chapter
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Water Resources
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- U.S. Forest Service
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
- Other state agencies, municipalities, and watershed conservancy districts
Resources
- Ecological flow study for the Monongahela River basin, July 2014
- Provisional recommendations for Youghiogheny Lake, July 2014
- Ecological flow study for the Allegheny River basin, September 2015
- Provisional recommendations for Allegheny and Clarion rivers, January 2017
- Ohio River Basin Climate Change Risk and Adaptation Pilot Study, 2017
Datasets
- Flow regime - daily flow data from USGS gages and reservoir inflow and outflow data
- Hydraulic habitat - USACE Upper Ohio HEC-RAS model (70 river miles)
- Ecological needs - regional biological databases (PA Aquatic Community Classification, Species occurrence data national wetlands inventory; Active River Area footprint and embedded landcover types)
Publications