On Wednesday, February 22 at 6pm, at the Media Borough Parlor Room, area residents will have an opportunity to hear from the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in a Public Informational Meeting about the planned partial breach of Broomall’s Dam, currently scheduled for April 30th.

The partial breach will reduce the safety hazard of the orphaned dam which is in severe disrepair.

However, the partial breach will render the road impassable to pedestrians and bicycles in addition to cars for two years or more, until the proposed dam reconstruction is complete. With no parties yet willing to claim ownership of the current or proposed dam, it is uncertain how long this pre-construction phase will last.

Temporary Pedestrian Bridge?

Friends of Glen Providence Park has requested Media Borough Council to consider the construction of a temporary pedestrian bridge during this pre-construction phase. We feel it is in the best interest of Media Borough and Upper Providence to maintain this connection.

Why maintain the connection:

• Safety: We are concerned that people will attempt to find a way to cross the breach that is unsafe.
• Economics: Many people walk to Media for shopping and great events like Dining Under the Stars. Some people commute to work from UP to Media on foot — across Broomall’s Dam on 3rd Street!
• Community: 3rd Street is a valuable connection between Upper Providence and Media neighbors and activities.
• Best Practices: It is a PennDOT recommendation in their Design Manual to continue pedestrian access during construction (Chapter 6.14, Pedestrian Facilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 2012.).
• Time: 2-3 years is a long time to have this connection broken.

If you’d like to see a temporary pedestrian bridge, please come to the meeting and make your voice heard.

In addition, it is our understanding that the 3rd Street entrance to the park will be closed while the DEP is removing the dam, which is expected to take about 60 days.

Be informed! You can read an overview and history of the 3rd Street Project, with links to past articles, in the menu above. And you can learn much more about the 3rd Street project and Broomall’s Dam, and find detailed information about the partial dam removal by reading our past articles in the Dam/Bridge Category – and by exploring the Tags – on the right.

Friends of Glen Providence Park continues to support dam removal and stream restoration with an environmentally sensitive connection between Upper Providence and Media, which will minimize damage to the park. 

This is planned as a temporary dam removal until the proposed new dam is built. For details including safety, public notice, and 3rd Street access, see our May 2016 update. 

The Friends of Glen Providence Park continues to support dam removal, stream restoration and a local discussion of an environmentally-sensitive bridge between Media Borough and Upper Providence.

As mentioned this week in a Delaware County Times article, in September 2012, Media Borough Council had voted to move forward with the design of a new dam to include a one-way eastbound road (with width to accommodate two lanes). This was after a 15-month public participation process involving at least 4 public meetings, a public survey, and extensive work by a Citizen Advisory Committee.

In response, BLCC filed a Petition for Contempt in October 2012, after which Judge Proud revoked the Stipulation Agreement in February 2013. The Commonwealth Court reinstated the Stipulation Agreement in December 2013, remanding the case to Proud’s jurisdiction. The May 9 hearing will be 20 months since the Petition for Contempt was filed, halting further progress.

Broomall’s Dam Safety: There is a gas line running through Broomall’s Dam, which would pose a public and environmental threat if the dam were to fail. After we asked the PA Department of Environmental Protections (PA DEP) about this in January, the PA DEP contacted PECO. This week, PECO has been working to install a safety valve for the gas line, so that it can be shut off in case of an emergency with the dam.

The Friends of Glen Providence Park continues to support dam removal, stream restoration and a local discussion of an environmentally-sensitive bridge between Media Borough and Upper Providence.

Broomall’s Dam on Third Street is often called a “bridge.” In fact, it is a high hazard dam with a road on top of it. Some people focus exclusively on reopening the road while ignoring the economic, environmental, and public safety consequences of replacing and maintaining a high hazard dam.

Replacing Broomall’s Dam is:

• UNSAFE
A newly constructed dam will be classified as “Level 1 High Hazard.” This classification has nothing to do with the dam’s condition. It means that dam failure could result in the loss of human life and extensive property damage.

No matter how much care is taken during construction, a 29 foot tall earthen dam has inherent risks. Do we really want a high hazard dam above a public park where our neighbors, children and families will be at risk?

• UNNECESSARY
Most taxpayer funded dams are built for a compelling public purpose such as producing electricity, storing a large volume of drinking water, or providing public recreation. Replacing Broomall’s Lake dam will provide NO public benefit at all.

• UNFAIR
Supporters of replacing Broomall’s Dam want to spend up to $4 million of taxpayers’ money to preserve a small lake for a private Country Club. At the same time, replacing the dam will permanently damage a section of a public park and a stream. Spending public dollars for private gain and public loss is unfair.

Removing the dam would settle these issues once and for all, replacing a burden with a gift for future generations.

Friends of Glen Providence Park wants our public officials to:

• REMOVE the dam
The leadership of the Friends of Glen Providence Park is calling to remove – rather than replace – Broomall’s Dam. Removing the dam will preserve valuable natural wetlands and allow for reforestation of the north section of the park.

Across Pennsylvania and the United States, dams are being removed and streams are being restored as an economic and environmental best practice. Removing the dam is the best economic, environmental, and public safety policy.

• RESTORE the stream
Before Judge Broomall built a dam on his property in 1883, the stream of Broomall’s Run flowed unimpeded to Ridley Creek.

Removing the dam will restore Broomall’s Run to its natural state, allowing for improved water quality, greater connectivity for wildlife, and healthy sediment flow.

The restored stream will descend 29 feet in a series of natural waterfalls, creating a babbling brook surrounded by trees – a beautiful setting for both the park and the Country Club.

• RECONNECT neighbors
We don’t need to replace the dam to connect Media and Upper Providence; we can remove the dam and build a bridge for that purpose.

Friends of Glen Providence Park supports an environmentally sensitive design that connects the two municipalities and encourages a community dialogue about bridge options.

This is the text of the flyers that Friends of Glen Providence Park distributed around Media Borough in the summer of 2013. For the text of the dam removal flyer we distributed in winter 2012, click here. 

Learn more about:

Broomall’s Dam history and news on our website, using the Categories, Tags and Search feature to the right, and menu bar above, for information including:
– Our position on dam removal
– Documentation of the 1.1 Acre of park that would be destroyed by dam replacement

Dam removal locally and nationally at www.americanrivers.org

The Third Street Project on the Media Borough website: www.mediaborough.org/publicworks

Third Street Dam Safety Workshop

Monday, August 20, 4:30-6:00 p.m.

At the dam site

Is the dam safe for now?

We encourage park users, those who live downstream and schools and community groups who use the park to attend and learn about how the dam operates, why the dam has been deemed unsafe, and what measures are or should be in place to protect people downstream in the event of an emergency. Mr. Reisinger will discuss dam basics as well as an evaluation of the current dam’s safety, and what measures citizens and those downstream can take to ensure their own personal safety. He will discuss the requirements for an Emergency Action Plan (EAP). The Third Street Dam is a high hazard dam in poor condition. After reconstruction it will continue to be a high hazard dam due to its potential impacts on human life in the case of failure.

Delaware County, BLCC and Media Borough invited to attend

Media Borough Engineer Bob Johnston will attend, and at this time no other officials or BLCC leadership have responded. Currently Broomall’s Lake Country Club operates the dam, and it is presumed that they will continue to be the operators. Delaware County and Broomall’s Lake Country Club, according to the stipulation, will be sharing responsibility for the dam after reconstruction;  Media Borough will maintain the roadway atop the dam.

Bring Questions

There will be ample time for questions and answers, and we are thankful to Mr. Reisinger for taking the time to educate our community about the state of the Third Street Dam.

Friends of Glen Providence Park, after carefully doing research and weighing the evidence, has decided to fully support dam removal and stream restoration as the most promising option for the resolution of the 3rd Street Project. But the question on everyone’s mind seems to be:

What would Broomall’s Lake look like if it became Broomall’s Run again?

Look upstream, look downstream. You see a babbling brook, a creek, surrounded by woods and rocks. There are some wetlands, which are precious birthing grounds for turtles, frogs and fish. You see trees such as Sycamore, Tulip Poplar, American Beech, Oaks and Maples. You see shrubs like Witch Hazel and Spicebush. (Yes, there are some invasives…more on that later.) Some experts think that there are some natural waterfalls, undoubtedly smaller than the man-made one, because of the significant drop at the dam. Apparently, pre-dam, the same area was where people forded the creek, hinting that there may be bedrock beneath the dam somewhere.

Contrary to common belief, dam removal and stream restoration does not ultimately result in horrible mud flats and mosquitos. Nature finds equilibrium and sediment runs downstream while plants get seeded. With some help from restoration experts, some tree planting and perhaps some earth moving, things return to a “new normal.” In fact, it’s more like the “old normal,” before the dam was built.

Going with nature, by removing the dam and restoring the stream, will save a great deal of money and effort. When humans go against nature, it’s always costly. Right now, Broomall’s Lake needs expensive dredging because it is filling up with sediment. Why is it filling up with sediment? Because there is not supposed to be a lake or dam.

And what about that sediment? According to American Rivers regional experts, sediment in Pennsylvania’s old dams is rarely dangerously toxic, though it’s not spa-worthy mud.

And the State of Pennsylvania and American Rivers both know a thing or two about dam removal, stream restoration and management of sediments. Pennsylvania is the country’s leader in dam removal, probably because we are a large old state with a lot of old, old dams. American Rivers has been assisting public and private entities to clean up their waterways across the country. If you think Broomall’s Dam is a big project, look at the recent removal of Elwha Dam.

Here’s an example of before and after photographs, courtesy of American Rivers:

Dunkard Creek, PA before and after dam removal

Finally, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has a compelling slide show about Pennsylvania dam safety, with some great before/after comparisons.