POND ON ENO TO BE HISTORY
Dam that created fishing, canoeing site being removed to help wildlife and safety
BY EMILY COAKLEY
The Herald-Sun
Saturday March 04, 2006
Final Edition
Durham Section
Page E1

A small pond on the Eno River, a good place for some to canoe or fish, will not be around much longer. The dam which creates the pond is being removed to help wildlife in the River and address safety concerns.

This week work began on the dam next to Pleasant Green Road, near the intersection of Interstate 85 and U.S. 70.

Ecology was the driving factor for removing the dam, said Dave Cook, superintendent of Eno River State Park.

Removing the dam allows wildlife upstream to mix with wildlife downstream, which helps keep populations healthy, Cook said. When the two populations were separate, some species suffered. Getting rid of the dam will allow wildlife to go to other parts of the River.

Mussels, for example, will be able to spread through the River, because as larvae they hitch a ride onto fish gills. When they are large Enough, the mussels drop off, Cook said.

But removing the dam has a down side for some, recreationally speaking, as it will change the activities available there.

"Because of the dam, the water was so calm you could paddle up and down," Cook said. "The rest of the River is a one-way River."

Now, the River will move faster there, so people won't be able to flat-water canoe as they had before. People who also enjoyed fishing in the pond created behind the dam will have to go elsewhere.

When the 12-foot high, 122-foot long dam is gone, there will be opportunities for fly-fishing and whitewater canoeing, Cook said.

The removal project is being paid for by the state, and it will cost anywhere from $92,000 to $229,000, according to the state.

Officials opened the gates to the dam Thursday morning to begin draining the pond. Within an hour, water upstream dropped three inches, Cook said, and water downstream rose by two inches.

Duke Power Co. built the concrete dam in 1915 to collect water to cool superheated water at a nearby steam generation plant, Cook said. The plant was torn down in 1958.

The Pleasant Green Road dam is one of five along the Eno as it winds through Orange County, Cook said. Four of the others are still being used, either to hold municipal water supplies or help a textile mill.

In the late 1800s, there were more than 30 dams on the same stretch, mostly used by mills.

"A flood in 1908 took most of them out," Cook said.

Talk of removing the dam began in 1997, Cook said. Surveys done in 2001 showed the dam would likely fail, which would mostly pose a threat to people on trails in the state park, or in canoes on the water. It didn't really threaten towns or neighborhoods.

But there was no way of knowing how much longer the dam would last.

"I think that's what made people nervous," Cook said. "There wasn't any way to know for sure or to find out."

On Thursday afternoon, Robin Jacobs, the new executive director of the Eno River Association, came to check out progress at the dam.

"Essentially we wanted to do whatever had to be done," Cook said. "The cost of replacing it was so exorbitant."

According to the state, repairing or replacing the dam could have cost at least $500,000, and probably a good deal more.

The dam project is being done in two parts with a season between them. This first phase, where more water is being let out, will last a couple of weeks.

As the water levels on either side of the dam equalize, Riverbanks covered with silt, or dirt carried by the water and left at and around the dam, will be revealed.

Phase one will end and the state will wait through the summer growing season before starting the second. The state is waiting to see what, if anything, will grow on the banks.

When another dam was removed, plants started growing on the silt soon after it was exposed, said Jeff Bruton, an environmental specialist with the division of water resources.

Plants in the banks keep them from eroding, and the state would plant vegetation anyway to prevent erosion. But giving nature a few months to work could save the state some time and effort.

In October, equipment will be brought in to remove the dam, Cook said.