$8.68 Million Set for Englewood, Germantown and Taylorsville Dam Repairs

Federal money will cover more than half of a roughly $15 million job to replace century-old concrete at three Miami Conservancy District dams.

By Richthrax · Oct. 25, 2026

Three of the Miami Valley's century-old flood-control dams will get about $8.68 million in federal money for concrete repairs, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner announced Tuesday, Oct. 20.

The money will go to the Englewood, Germantown and Taylorsville dams, which the Miami Conservancy District operates, Dayton247Now (WKEF) reported Oct. 20. That station put the figure at $8.685 million. It covers a significant share of a roughly $15 million project.

WYSO, reporting the same day from the announcement at Taylorsville Dam, said the federal money comes through FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant program, funded in the Homeland Security appropriations bill. The rest of the cost will come from district capital funds and bonds, WYSO reported.

The work

Crews will remove deteriorated concrete in the upstream walls of the dams' primary spillways and replace it, adding reinforcement and drainage behind the walls, according to Dayton247Now. WYSO reported that the work includes steel rod anchors and drainage pipes.

Construction is expected to begin next spring and finish by the end of 2028, WYSO reported. The repairs are expected to extend the dams' life by 75 years.

"The science with concrete in the 19-teens and 1920s was not near what it is today," district Chief Engineer Don O'Connor said, according to Dayton247Now.

District General Manager MaryLynn Lodor said the federal money could let work start sooner. Without it, she estimated, raising enough money might have taken another 10 years, the station reported. "Every year they get more water, they get more damage," she told WYSO.

Turner called it "very, very important for us to get our fair share of federal monies," Dayton247Now reported.

Crowds tour Englewood

Hundreds of people toured Englewood Dam on Friday, Oct. 23, visiting stations that showed how the dam works, Dayton247Now reported.

Englewood Dam has held back floodwater more than 740 times, more than any other dam in the district's system, according to the station. Its concrete walls are 30 to 40 feet thick.

Sarah Hippensteel Hall, the district's manager of communications, outreach and stewardship, compared the dam in heavy rain to "an open bathtub drain" that stores water and lets out only so much. "The dam has worked really hard. And that concrete is old," she said. "It's time to rehab and replace some of that structure so that it stays strong for the next hundred years."

A bigger bill ahead

District officials say this grant is only a start. Hippensteel Hall called it "just the beginning." Dayton247Now reported Oct. 23 that the district estimates it needs about $450 million over the next 20 years for concrete rehabilitation and levee restoration. WYSO reported Oct. 20 that a district engineering analysis put systemwide repair needs at about $140 million. The two reports did not explain the difference.

The flood protection system serves parts of nine counties, according to Dayton247Now.