By Ricky Rieckert
Dear readers,
The prior two weeks I described the unique nature of the Fox River. This week, I will discuss the pros and cons of dam removal and why, according to myself and others, believe the dams should stay, on the Fox River.
The dams have been around for about one century to generate power for mills in all the river towns in the Fox Valley area.
In most cases the dams have never been a severe problem or concern.
One article stated, the impoundments behind the dams filter and biologically clean storm water runoff and waste water treatment discharges from the entire watershed. Removal just sends pollution downstream.
Removal of the impoundment will destroy acres of wetlands, home to a diverse and thriving habitat.
Wetlands are crucial to the health of our ecosystem and per environmental requirements must be completely restored or re-created. The millions of plants in our shoreline wetlands absorb CO2 and reduce our carbon footprint.
Removal of the dams will result in a 25% to 50% reduction in River width and communities will be responsible for moving storm sewer piping and drains to the new River boundaries. Additionally there will be moving and modifying the structures and components of water treatment facilities; miles of shoreline and wetland restoration; hazardous waste mitigation from decades of industrial waste dumping scoured up by the faster running River; and inspection and reinforcement of structures that assumed common offsetting hydraulic balancing forces from River water levels.
As to costs, there is no known claim being made by dam-removal proponents that it would be free; rather, the steep and forever-ongoing costs for inspections, maintenance, repairs, and liabilities for these 100 year + old dams would be eliminated.
In my opinion, there is a lot of settlement (muck) in the River, at present time, and if the flood of 1996 (17 inches of rain in two days) didn’t remove it, taking dams-out wouldn’t either.
Alba Manufacturing under the Indian Trail bridge, got pranked by environmental activist “The Fox” A.K.A. James Phillips, whom I met, before he passed away.
The Fox was responsible for creating anti-pollution pranks to corporations that violated pollution standards in the Fox River. The pranks include plugging chemical drains to the River and covering smoke stacks.
My dad talked about the Fox River in Aurora to me, as a little boy, he said when he was a kid, there were gamefish, such as walleye, northern pike, crappie, bass to name a few. Clams, eel, and garfish, also.
The Fox River will never be like my dad once saw it, but it is much cleaner.
One hot summer in the late 1970s, I believe, we were in a drought, I remember you could walk 20 feet out on the shoreline in downtown Aurora. The River was so low, that you could smell a stink from exposed “muck”.
That same scenario could happen if you take the downtown dams out. Just the smell you want on your way to the Paramount Theatre or a restaurant downtown.
Dam removal will wash sediments out, downstream some, but not to the Illinois River in Ottawa or the Mighty Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans.
Fish will relocate and so will birds, and insects, along with marshlands. Nature was here before man and she’ll be here long after.
In my lifetime, I have never seen any dam repair being done, anywhere. Also, they make the dams out to be a hazard that takes lives.
Yes, if you capsize over a dam, or get too close to the dam, there is a terrible undertow.
I believe on a Memorial Day weekend in the late 1960s, three Hispanic men from Chicago went over the dam in Yorkville and drowned. They had no idea about caution buoys and the signage wasn’t in Spanish.
The casualties from the dams are minor. My dad always told me, don’t be afraid of the River, but fear it. People don’t understand the hydraulics of water.
Lastly, the locks at the McHenry Dam, help with maintaining the Chain O’ Lakes recreation and controls the flow of the River going south.
I don’t think they will ever take out the dam in St. Charles, because of boating. I think some believe by taking the dams out, we will create whitewater rafting like the Colorado River. I also think they want power boats further south than St. Charles.
All in all, I think it’s a waste of good money to remove the dams, which could be put to a better use.
Like the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!