Near its mouth, the Susquehanna River drops off about 90 feet.
In the beginning of this century the Philadelphia Electric Company saw a way to take advantage of these falls.
In 1926 construction began on the Conowingo Dam and Power Plant.
When designing the dam, the engineers had to take in to account the large variation in the river’s flow. Half of its length acts as a spillway in case of large floods.
The top was surfaced with a roadbed to replace the Baltimore Pike Bridge demolished for the dam. Route 1 now crosses the Susquehanna at Conowingo.
The dam is operated today by the Susquehanna Electric Company and creates almost two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.
While visiting and touring
the Conowingo Dam, the group will identify the impact of the Dam on the
surrounding environment.
Environmental issues, such as water quality testing, river sediment build-up, flood plain overflow impact will be discussed and analyzed.
