Corps of Engineers to hold river safety meeting

Session asks public for suggestions in wake of women’s drownings

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A month after two women died in a boating accident at Dashields Locks and Dam on the Ohio River near Sewickley, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is inviting its waterways partners and the public to a meeting to identify ways to reduce the risk to people using the area’s rivers.

The focus, said spokeswoman Carol Vernon, is on raising water safety awareness around the Corps’ 23 navigation facilities, especially the 11 locks with fixed-crest dams on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

Also called “weir” or “low head” dams, those with fixed-crest construction can be difficult to see in some conditions. Approaching boaters may not recognize the small drop in water levels and be sucked down by the pull of the hydraulic boil on the other side. That is what is believed to have happened to Brittany Evans, 25, of West View, and Helene Brandy, 25, of Coraopolis during a kayak trip May 20.

“[The Army Corps] is very concerned about boating safety on the river. Fixed-crest dams are very difficult to see in watercraft on the river,” Ms. Vernon said. “We want to put our minds together and determine if more safety devices should be in place, if there are better ways for us to send out warnings or other methods to deliver the message that boaters should know the river, know where the dams are to be safe.”

Detailed regulations from the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps leadership dictate the type of physical warnings that must be installed upstream from a fixed-crest dam and where, relative to the dam, they must be placed.

“We’re doing what we’re supposed to do in accordance with our regulations,” Ms. Vernon said. “Now we want to see if there are other ideas out there.”

The meeting will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday at Aspinwall Riverfront Park, 285 River Ave., Aspinwall.

Army Corps representatives are expected to solicit ideas, identify resources, target actions and try to gain commitments related to boater education and awareness, physical safety measures, law enforcement and the coordination of new collaborative safety measures.