05/13/2025
Menallen Township Office of Emergency Management
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 13, 2025
CONTACT: James Bittner [email protected] (724) 245-8100
Reference: Patsy’s Lake EAP
Address: Searight Herbert Road
The Menallen Township Office of Emergency Management is aware of a social media post that surfaced on May 12, 2025, concerning a routine posting of an Emergency Action Plan Notice for a high-hazard dam within our municipality. We feel that it is necessary for us to provide the community with important information and ensure that there is a ZERO threat to public safety at this time.
Within the County of Fayette there are 10 “high hazard” dams under the PA DEP Dam Safety program, we house 4 of these dams within Menallen Township. Our Emergency Management team is well versed in the requirements of this plan and the permitting process required by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Division of Dam Safety.
The owners of this facility that was posted on social media retains an engineer as is required to maintain the plan, conduct visual and comprehensive inspections and have contingency plans in place for threats of public safety. We have met with the dam owners and their engineers in the past year and evaluated their plans and assure you our citizens that the plan is well within the parameters set forth and that the inspections are up-to-date, regular and on-going maintenance is performed, and the plans have been approved by the township, again with ZERO threat to public safety.
The following information presents a methodology for prioritizing the dams within a given county in terms of the risk they pose, to assist counties and municipalities in determining which dams to focus mitigation efforts and resources.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) Division of Dam Safety (the Division) maintains a list of dams in the given jurisdiction(s), including the dams’ Hazard Potential Categories. In the Commonwealth, dams with a Hazard Potential Category of 1 (Substantial) or 2 (Few) are considered “high hazard” dams. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) also categorizes dams through Hazard Potential Classification values of Low, Significant, and High.
The Dam Safety & Encroachments Act (Act 325 of 1978) and the Amendment for "High-Hazard Dam" Act 325 provides for the regulation of dams and reservoirs, water obstructions and encroachments in the Commonwealth, to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people and property.
Pennsylvania’s “Dam Safety and Encroachments Act” defines a high hazard dam as “any dam so located as to endanger populated areas downstream by its failure.” Practically, the term “high hazard” refers to a dam whose sudden failure would put the occupants of residential, commercial or industrial structures at risk. The extent of potential loss or damage is determined by a hydraulic engineer’s analysis of dam breach scenarios, translated into an inundation map. The inundation map is the most significant feature of an EAP. Category 1 Hazard potential describes a “high hazard” dam that could cause substantial loss of life, excessive economic loss, or substantial public inconvenience by its sudden failure. A
Category 2, “high hazard” potential dam is one that, in the event of operational or structural failure, could result in the loss of a few lives. Failure of a Category 3, “non-high hazard” dam, would not likely endanger human life, but could result in appreciable property damage or short duration public inconvenience. Public inconvenience could result from flooding of important roads, washout of a bridge, destruction or disruption of public utilities, etc.
For more information on the PA DEP Dam Safety program, you can refer to this Fact Sheet:
https://www.scema.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Dam-Safety-Emergency-Action-Plans-Fact-Sheet.pdf
# # #
427 Searight Herbert Road Uniontown, PA 15401
Telephone (724) 245-7108
www.menallen.org
Send a message to learn more
