Holding back the flood: The hidden work of the Mount Morris Dam
MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. (WROC) — At first glance, it might seem like just a massive structure tucked into a state park – but the Mount Morris Dam is far more than that. It's a silent guardian, holding back disaster when the water levels rise.
'The dam is built, it's like a massive, concrete wedge that blocks off the river flow completely unless we open gates down at the bottom. So today we have a few gates open because the big rain event has already passed, and now we're releasing water into the river. And so the dam will block what we need it to block, and then we release water as needed once the event is over to regain capacity,' said Steve Winslow, manager of the Mount Morris Dam and Recreation for the Army Corps of Engineers.
May 31st is National Dam Safety Awareness Day — and this year, the timing lines up perfectly. The Mount Morris Dam is in the middle of its scheduled five-year inspection. Right now, the Mount Morris Dam is undergoing the inspection — a full-scale checkup to ensure it's still ready to do its job when the pressure's on.
'This periodic inspection focuses on that expertise from the engineers to look for developing trends or other issues that operations staff, you know, if they see it every day, they might not notice it, you know? So, we have outside expertise bringing their knowledge into the system and making discussing findings and recommendations for the future, whether that's an immediate, immediate issue or something in the next 5 or 10 years has to be addressed,' said Dustin Tellinghuisen, Dam Safety Program Manager for the Buffalo District.
That inspection is a massive undertaking — part of a routine checkup that ensures the dam's long-term reliability. From hydraulics to concrete, every element is under scrutiny.
'We split into groups and teams. And you know they go to their focus area. So our mechanicals have been going to look at every gate operation. And then all the structural engineers are walking through and looking at every piece of concrete on the dam. And both inside and outside the dam are Geotech. They're focusing on a lot of the instrumentation we have inside the dam for measuring like water pressure uplift and different things. So really, again, we're looking at everything,' Tellinghuisen said.
The Mount Morris Dam offers tours from May till late October. However, the best time to visit the dam is just after the region received rainfall.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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