Celebrating the Columbia Lake Dam Removal

On a bright, sunny day in Warren County, Princeton Hydro celebrated the Columbia Dam Removal Project with New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Commissioner Catherine McCabe, The New Jersey Nature Conservancy (event organizer), American Rivers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife Service, RiverLogic Solutions, and SumCo Eco-Contracting.

Overlooking the soon-to-be removed, century-old, hydroelectric Columbia Dam, key stakeholders, including Princeton Hydro’s President Geoffrey Goll, P.E. and New Jersey Nature Conservancy’s Director Barbara Brummer, remarked on the success of the project, collaborative team efforts, and future benefits to the Paulins Kill habitat.

NJ Nature Conservancy’s River Restoration Manager, Beth Styler-Barry thanked project funders including NJDEP’s Office of Natural Resource Restoration, USFWS’s Fish Passage Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Bring Back The Natives program, Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program, New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, Leavens Foundation, Tom’s of Maine, and Nature Conservancy members and donors.

“We made a commitment early-on to a 10-year monitoring and measurement plan. The removal of Columbia Dam is an opportunity to gain new knowledge and generate data that builds the case for this type of restoration. We’ll be looking at everything from mussels to temperature to geomorphological changes to increasing our targeted efficiencies. We’re also going to use images taken from repeated drone flyovers to look closely at changes in topography,” said Styler-Barry.

NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe added, “The Columbia Dam is ranked in the top 5% of the nearly 14,000 dams that were assessed for priority. It will give us one of the most bangs for our buck in terms of fish and native species that we’ll be able to bring back up here.” She added, “This is exactly what Natural Resources Damages funds should be used for, and we are thrilled to see it come to fruition.”

Back in the day, this dam structure was a marvel of engineering. Because concrete was very expensive during the time of construction, a patented, innovative “ransom hollow” design was used, which means it has a hollow center with series of doorways underneath the dam, explained Geoffrey Goll, P.E., President of Princeton Hydro. However, sustainability and climate change are very important issues today and must be taken into consideration for the life-cycle of a dam.

“Removal is a logical step in the history of this dam. Dam removals are the most impactful restorations. They provide the most ecological uplift and improvement for rivers,” Goll stated.

For Princeton Hydro, this project involved every discipline we have in the firm: civil engineering, fishery biology, wetland science, hydraulics, geotechnical engineering, and regulatory work. We were contracted by American Rivers to investigate, design, and permit for the removal of this dam for the New Jersey Nature Conservancy. Our team of engineers and ecologists studied the feasibility of removal by collecting sediment samples, performed bioassay tests, and conducted a hydraulic analysis of upstream and downstream conditions. Currently, we are providing construction administration services during the removal process. This project is a great example of our ability to complete multi-disciplinary projects in-house.

At the end of the press conference, project partners celebrated the anticipation of the “first hammer” in the near future with an imitation dynamite siren and plastic sledge hammers. It was truly a keystone moment for everyone involved in this project.

The remnant dam downstream has already been removed and the main dam is due to be removed very soon. Check out our previous story with a series of photos documenting this first-step in the overall dam removal process: bit.ly/ColumbiaDamRemoval. Stay tuned for photos during the main dam removal process too.

Princeton Hydro has designed, permitted, and overseen the reconstruction, repair, and removal of a dozens of small and large dams in the Northeast. To learn more about our fish passage and dam removal engineering services, visit: bit.ly/DamBarrier.

• Climate Change
• Engineering
• Natural Resource Management
• Stream Restoration
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