By LESLEY
LAMBERT/ecoRI.org News contributor
CHARLESTOWN — For 50 years Kenyon Industries
has been dyeing, finishing, coating and printing woven synthetic fabrics,
primarily for the military. The company is also renowned for its sailcloth and
luggage fabrics. It is the last active textile mill in southern Rhode Island.
The mill, off Sherman Avenue, is along the Pawcatuck River, just a few miles
downstream from Worden Pond.
The Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association (WPWA) has been working diligently since 2006 to restore fish passage. Migratory fish such as alewife, blueback herring, American shad and Atlantic salmon spend their life in the ocean and migrate into freshwater to spawn.
Migratory fish enter the Pawcatuck River through
Little Narragansett Bay, making their way past White Rock Dam via a raceway on
the left side of the river. They then go over fish ladders at Potter Hill Dam
(built some 20 years ago) and Bradford Dam (rebuilt in 2008), through the rocky
weirs along Lower Shannock Falls (dam removed in 2010) and over the Denil fish
ladder built at Horseshoe Falls last year.
When they reach the dam at Kenyon Industries, they have arrived at the last impediment on the Pawcatuck River for fish migrating to their spawning ground in Worden Pond.
The dam at Kenyon Industries can’t simply be removed, as it services the company’s fire-suppression pump house, but it can be rebuilt in a manner to allow fish to pass.
With funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), Restore America’s Estuaries, The Nature Conservancy and Save The Bay, the stone dam, built in the 1800s, is being replaced with a sheet pile dam that will be encased in stone to mimic natural habitats and flow.
A series of rocky weirs below the dam will raise the elevation of the river just below the dam so that fish can pass.
While the original plans called for a costly — to the tune of $505,000 — pipe-and-pump dewatering of the site during construction, the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) permitted the WPWA to allow qualified bidders to come up with alternative options.
The winning option, from Salem, Mass.-based SumCo Eco-Contracting LLC, proposed dewatering through a diversionary channel, allowing for better water management, disrupting a smaller area of wetlands and costing $275,000 less than the initial approach.
Construction should be complete by mid-November and planting and seeding in spring 2014 will restore the disturbed wetlands, according to WPWA executive director Christopher Fox.
The DEM has been stocking Worden Pond with adult river herring for a few years in anticipation of the completion of Kenyon dam fish passage. The juvenile herring spawned in the pond will migrate to the ocean to grow and become sexually mature. When they are ready to return to their spawning grounds — about four years after they leave — they will use chemical sensors and make their way back to Worden Pond.
Once the restoration is complete, the novice passerby will think it’s just a naturally rocky area of the river. Only the advanced kayaker will be able to paddle this section, but a new, stable footpath will make portage much easier for canoeists and paddlers.
The dam will continue to be owned by Kenyon Industries, while the rocky weirs will be owned and maintained by the state. The property easement under negotiation includes the portage path so future property owners must uphold public access to this path and allow paddlers the use of the path and river. It also allows state biologists to indefinitely access the property to maintain the weirs.
Attaining a National Park Service “Wild & Scenic” designation is awaiting approval on the Senate floor and a signature from President Obama. Such a designation would bring federal funding to improve and raise awareness about this watershed.
The Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association (WPWA) has been working diligently since 2006 to restore fish passage. Migratory fish such as alewife, blueback herring, American shad and Atlantic salmon spend their life in the ocean and migrate into freshwater to spawn.
Migratory fish enter the Pawcatuck River through
Little Narragansett Bay, making their way past White Rock Dam via a raceway on
the left side of the river. They then go over fish ladders at Potter Hill Dam
(built some 20 years ago) and Bradford Dam (rebuilt in 2008), through the rocky
weirs along Lower Shannock Falls (dam removed in 2010) and over the Denil fish
ladder built at Horseshoe Falls last year.When they reach the dam at Kenyon Industries, they have arrived at the last impediment on the Pawcatuck River for fish migrating to their spawning ground in Worden Pond.
The dam at Kenyon Industries can’t simply be removed, as it services the company’s fire-suppression pump house, but it can be rebuilt in a manner to allow fish to pass.
With funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), Restore America’s Estuaries, The Nature Conservancy and Save The Bay, the stone dam, built in the 1800s, is being replaced with a sheet pile dam that will be encased in stone to mimic natural habitats and flow.
A series of rocky weirs below the dam will raise the elevation of the river just below the dam so that fish can pass.
While the original plans called for a costly — to the tune of $505,000 — pipe-and-pump dewatering of the site during construction, the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) permitted the WPWA to allow qualified bidders to come up with alternative options.
The winning option, from Salem, Mass.-based SumCo Eco-Contracting LLC, proposed dewatering through a diversionary channel, allowing for better water management, disrupting a smaller area of wetlands and costing $275,000 less than the initial approach.
Construction should be complete by mid-November and planting and seeding in spring 2014 will restore the disturbed wetlands, according to WPWA executive director Christopher Fox.
The DEM has been stocking Worden Pond with adult river herring for a few years in anticipation of the completion of Kenyon dam fish passage. The juvenile herring spawned in the pond will migrate to the ocean to grow and become sexually mature. When they are ready to return to their spawning grounds — about four years after they leave — they will use chemical sensors and make their way back to Worden Pond.
Once the restoration is complete, the novice passerby will think it’s just a naturally rocky area of the river. Only the advanced kayaker will be able to paddle this section, but a new, stable footpath will make portage much easier for canoeists and paddlers.
The dam will continue to be owned by Kenyon Industries, while the rocky weirs will be owned and maintained by the state. The property easement under negotiation includes the portage path so future property owners must uphold public access to this path and allow paddlers the use of the path and river. It also allows state biologists to indefinitely access the property to maintain the weirs.
Attaining a National Park Service “Wild & Scenic” designation is awaiting approval on the Senate floor and a signature from President Obama. Such a designation would bring federal funding to improve and raise awareness about this watershed.