HARRISBURG - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today announced a major construction project for the Carbon County area, the building of a major multiuse dam across the Lehigh River. The dam will be constructed at the Lehigh Gap and will be used for water supply for Allentown and Philadelphia regions, recreational purposes, and flood control. It is estimated that the water behind the new dam will have a surface area of 53 square miles. The future dam is unnamed at this time.

The dam will be built to a height of approximately 250 feet, potentially flooding an area behind the dam up to the 600 foot contour line. This amounts to an area encompassing all of Palmerton east to Kunkletown, leaving most of the Chestnut Ridge as islands, and north to the edge of Jim Thorpe, encompassing Bowmanstown, Parryville, Lehighton and Weissport.

Another major aspect of the project is the relocation of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Northeast Extension, to the north and west of Jim Thorpe, circling around the flooded Lehighton area to the west, and crossing the Blue Mountain approximately where Route 309 presently crosses the mountain. The current tunnel near Palmerton will be used as an emergency water outlet, with a channel to be built which will enter the Lehigh River south of Slatington.

A third project in concert with the dam will be the removal of the hazardous waste piles accumulated over nearly a century by the New Jersey Zinc Co., both along the Blue Mountain and at the west end of the West Plant, near the ex-CNJ railroad station. Capping the piles has been considered, but the use of the water as a potable water source for downstream cities dictates the piles’ removal.

A fourth project will be a quick excavation of the old Native American village supposedly buried by a residue pile from the New Jersey Zinc Co., opposite the old CNJ railroad station in Palmerton. A member of the Pennsylvania Historical Preservation Authority was present with maps of the village.

A fifth and smaller project will the relocation of the Covered Bridge at Little Gap to Kunkletown, where it will be preserved in static condition.

Expected timing for the projects are: 10 years for construction of the dam, 8 years for the removal of the hazardous waste piles, and 4 years for the construction of the new turnpike route. Removal of the piles will be to a clay and concrete lined ex-coal mine pit near Summit Hill, a new hazardous waste dump for eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The ex-mine pit preparation for storage of hazardous waste materials will begin almost immediately.

Other factors under consideration are the removal of the cities of Palmerton and Lehighton, and also the villages of Little Gap, Bowmanstown, Parryville and Weissport. The ex-Lehigh Valley Railroad yards at Packerton will be excavated, principally to remove accumulated coal and any hazardous wastes.

Mauch Chunk Lake will be unaffected, but Beltzville dam will be drained and daylighted, the base of the dam being below the level of water in the new dam.

During questioning at the news conference, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers defended the plan as vitally necessary for future growth in the Philadelphia area. Without major industry, the cities and villages are considered expendable in regard for the greater good that will be accomplished. Asked where the cities and villages would be relocated, the spokesman said that each household will be considered on an individual basis, and that there were no plans to establish a “new” city or village.

Further details will be available when the Corps holds town meetings in Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Slatington and Allentown in June.

Cliff Brown, formerly of Palmerton, was a chemist, graduated from Rutgers after the U.S. Army, working in NJZ labs for 13 years, then moved to Gastonia, North Carolina to work in the lithium industry.