SALEM, W.Va. (WBOY) — A few weeks ago, Salem saw a large amount of flooding that affected local businesses; on April 11, the police department said the Upper and Lower Dog Run Dams operated by the City of Salem breached and flooded much of the city.

Of the multiple dams in the Salem area, seven are operated by the West Virginia Conservation Agency (WVCA) which said all their dams were designed to protect against flooding and none of them breached. WVCA officials said the dams were actually built to withstand a larger capacity of water than they encountered a few weeks ago.

“What we call the risers on the upstream side of the embankment, that’s the first part of the outlets structure there. There’s multiple stages of discharge there. Typically the lowest it holds in what we call a normal pool, so there’s always a little bit of body water there. And then all of the flood storage comes from excess accumulation in the reservoir area there,” said Levi Cyphers, WVCA watershed staff, in an interview with 12 News.

“As more water comes in, it’s actually controlled going out. It’s self-regulating, it’s not that there are operational gates or anything like that on there but it’s self-regulating, so it only allows a set amount of water to be discharged downstream. And there’s a point that it—the pool elevates and there is a second level of discharge as well, so a little bit more water is allowed to pass out of there,” Cyphers continued.

He said that the dam slowly releases a steady amount of water so that areas downstream don’t get overwhelmed. In a bigger event like the one on April 11, Cyphers said the water could be released over the course of several days until it reaches a normal level.

Cyphers said most of the dams were only up to the second stage and a couple did not even get to the second stage.

He added their seven dams do provide a reduction in flood to the city as much as it can. “Without there being dams on every single tributary you’re not going to reduce all of the flooding down stream.”

Davin White, WVCA communications specialist confirmed that all seven dams were functioning properly when Salem flooded over a week ago.

“All of our dams that we have oversight of, they were functioning properly and working properly even with the some cases, Salem Fork 11 for instance, that did take on quite a bit of water and there was a lot of water in the reservoir,” White said.

Members of the WVCA team began inspecting the dams Thursday night when flooding began and were onsite again on Friday to verify the integrity of the dam after the flood, a practice they said they always do after high water.

12 News contacted the City of Salem to learn more about the dams they manage and their response to the floods on April 11 and 12, but as of the publishing of this article, 12 News has gotten a return for comment.