By Clark Amadon
It’s time to remove this dam and restore a river.
The Warren Village dam is a signature iconic image. It represents a time of growth, energy and settlement. The dam is to be celebrated for the history it represents and its importance to our cultural heritage. We should always appreciate how it came to be and what it meant to those who built and used it to fuel the community with supplies and goods. This is the last of many dams within Warren and only one of two intact dams left in the Mad River. Its breaching and removal would eliminate a structure that means a great deal to many: to some the idea of some energy independence, to others a piece of history, beauty and heritage and to others the symbol of youthful play and relaxation.
When it's gone a site can be designated for its remembrance for how it came to be, how it was used and why it became time to remove it. It can tell the story of how humans controlled a river and how humans decided to give it back.
We live in an era that strives to reconnect things. The Mad River has been disconnected for way too long. The river has been kept from doing what rivers do, which is to conduct water, sediment, organisms and other material. The river will return in many ways to what it was like before dams disconnected the system. The flat water of the dam pond will become a vibrant river running freely over riffles, pools and ledges with no impoundment to back up water into village homes and roads. Intact and connected rivers allow for a freer movement of sediments and materials. Connected rivers let fish and other aquatic critters move up and down the system. Intact rivers are cleaner and colder.
The re-emerged river will become a new iconic symbol of Warren Village.
The removal of dams is a growing movement in the United States and Vermont as well. The film Damnation shows how this is happening nationally. The film documents the removal of two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, the largest dam removal in history. The removal of this active hydroelectric dam has brought back all five Pacific salmon species to the river and restored a long forgotten river course which attracts tourists and boaters. In Vermont, locally, two dams were removed on the Wells River over the last two summers, a dam in Marshfield Village on the Winooski was taken down two years ago, a dam on the iconic Battenkill was removed three years ago and eight years ago in Northfield Falls a dam was removed on Cox Brook that reconnected miles of spawning habitat for trout and made the area immediately downstream much safer. This is the era of reclaiming lost rivers and reconnecting and restoring systems. Last year, according to the group American Rivers, which advocates for the removal of certain dams to restore natural flows, 72 dams were demolished, which opened up 700 miles of streams.
The Warren Village dam is decrepit, dangerous and a disaster waiting to happen. Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources has said it will never approve rebuilding the dam. No change in political leadership will change that decision. Rebuilding would violate Vermont law. Economically, rebuilding makes no sense. Environmentally, removal makes the most sense. Really it is time to move! There are funds for dam removal but not for dam building. The funds and the design for removal would allow for careful and systematic removal of the Warren Village dam rather than a potentially catastrophic failure. The dams removed on Cox Brook in Northfield Falls and the two on the Wells cost the owners nothing and resulted in restored river reaches and invigorated organism passage. Federal and state funds along with support from river groups covered the entire cost of removal. It may be no guarantee that the cost of removing the Warren dam will be free; it'll be pretty darn close.
It also needs to be said that in order to be a friend of the river one cannot support the continued presence of the Warren Village dam. Old and useless dams are not for embracing but for removal.
Yes, the dam had its day and launched a vibrant community that thrives today with pride and resilience, but the dam should not continue to stand. The new era of a connected and healthy river is now upon us.
Remove the Warren Village dam and restore a river!
Clark Amadon lives in Moretown and is president of MadDog Chapter Trout Unlimited.
