Dam On The Battenkill Coming Down

Another one bites the dust.

Work got underway this week on the demolition of the Dufresne Dam on the Battenkill in Manchester.

Fish and Wildlife officials say the dam has impeded fish migration for more than a century on Vermont’s most famous wild trout stream.

LINK (via:Vermont Public Radio)

Gold Ray Dam Removal Project in Time-lapse

The removal of Gold Ray Dam located on Oregon's Rogue River in 2010 provided a unique opportunity to remove one of the last fish barriers on the Rogue River. Additionally, funding tied to habitat allowed Jackson County to remove a deteriorating structure and any potential future liabilities. This video shows the removal process from start to finish using time-lapse photography.

(via: PetaPixel)

New life for the Carmel River

The Carmel River Reroute and San Clemente Dam Project is the largest dam removal project ever to occur in California and one of the largest to occur on the West Coast.  This groundbreaking project sets precedence for other dam removal and river restoration projects in California and nationwide.

When complete, the project will remove the 106 foot high antiquated dam and implement a watershed restoration process that will bring the Carmel River back to life.

LINK

Congressional hearing: Committee to take up Klamath dam debate

A year and a half after congressional legislation was introduce to give the green light to Klamath dam removal, the issue will have its first congressional hearing by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in June.

LINK (via: The Siskiyou Daily)

Project to remove San Clemente dam given the green light

Another one bites the dust!

The $83 million project includes removal of the 106-foot dam which was built in 1921 and is 15 miles above Carmel. The dam, which was ruled seismically unsafe in the 1990s, has been out of use for years and has millions of cubic feet of silt behind it. The project also includes re-routing the Carmel River and removing the old Carmel River dam. It is expected to improve the river's natural habitat for endangered steelhead and other protected species.

LINK (via: The Monterey Herald)

Fish Ladders and Elevators Not Working

For reasons no one completely understands, fish ladders and elevators are not helping fish at some mainstem dams in the East.

Scientists and engineers set targets for the transport capacity of fish passages. And yet, the study lays bare that those targets are being missed by orders of magnitude. For instance, the first Merrimack River dam aims to let 300,000 river herring pass through; the mean number for the years 2008 to 2011 was 706 per year. The goal at the first Connecticut River dam is 300,000 to 500,000 fish. There, the mean for those same years was 86. And for the Susquehanna, the goal is 5 million river herring spawning above the fourth dam, which passed an average of seven herring from 2008 to 2011. This means that very few fish are reaching quality breeding grounds, which has likely contributed to the decimation in river herring populations.

LINK (via:Science)