A study of sedimentation in a Miami Conservancy District reservoir

This report describes a study made of several features of sedimentation as it occurs in one of the flood-control basins of the Miami Conservancy District. The study was made by the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research in cooperation with the Miami Conservancy District. The samples were collected by the forces of the Conservancy District and shipped to the laboratory of the Iowa Institute where they were analyzed and this report was prepared. The Miami Conservancy District reservoirs were built for the purpose of protecting the towns of the Miami Valley from floods and are located on the Miami River and its tributaries in western Ohio. The reservoirs are formed by earth-dams through which conduits or tunnels carry the normal flow of the river. When floods occur, the capacity of these conduits is too small to permit the water to pass as rapidly as it enters the reservoir. Part of the flood is therefore detained in the basins until the flow into the basin has decreased sufficiently to permit the stored water to escape through the conduits. Except in very large floods the water is retained in these basins at most only a few days. The principal purpose of the study was to determine what part of the sediment which is brought in by the floods is deposited in the basins, and to obtain information regarding the character of the sediment, from which the action of similar basins in other localities can be predicted.