WEST MILFORD, W.Va. — A sunny day in Harrison County allowed for progress to be made on the first day of a project remove three dams along the West Fork River.
After placing rock behind the West Milford Dam Monday, crews working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canaan Valley Institute began hammering out a knock in the structure that’s approximately two feet deep.
“The purpose of that is to start drawing down the water level behind the dam,” said Nick Millett, a Biologist with U.S. Fish and Wildlife said. “This six-mile pool that extends from here in West Milford up to Goodhope will drop approximately two feet, depending on the location along that stretch.”
The first drop of the giant machine into the dam Monday will be one of the first physical acts for a project that originated in the early 2000s marked by negotiations with the agencies and the Clarksburg Water Board, opposition from locals and the Harrison County Commission and waiting for permits to be approved.
Once the water level is dropped, the crew will wait 24 hours while the river banks adjust and then repeat the process until the water has returned to its natural flow.
During this process there will be crews taking on other aspects of the
river restoration project.
With the main goal of U.S. Fish and Wildlife recreating the habitat of endangered mussels like the Clubshell Mussel, teams will be in monitoring the river banks to watch for any that may become stranded.
“Our biologists will collect those mussels,” Millett said. “Some of them will be relocated to a better habitat within the stream and some of them may be taken down to the White Sulfur Springs hatchery.
“This mussel’s endangered because of the habitat and because of the water quality, or the lack of habitat, rather. By restoring the riffle-pool sequences in the stream, we’ll create more oxygen in the water, just a more diverse habitat.”
Another team comprised with volunteers will simultaneously be taking on the other major side project, removing litter.
“There’s going to be a lot of trash cleanup,” Millett said. “We’ve got Fishing Report West Virginia, a great private group that’s come out to help us. They’ve done a lot of work cleaning up the rivers of the state.”
The trash will be gathered and the state DEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan will assist in disposal and recycling.
After completing the two to three weeks of work at the West Milford Dam, the project will work its way to demolition of the Highland and Two Lick Dams before renovations at the Hartland Dam help wrap up the project.
“We’re estimating two to three weeks per dam,” Millett said. “If there’s no problems with the equipment and everything runs smooth, then we can do it two weeks per dam. This one in particular, we’re hoping to do the notching, have the notching complete this week and then the following week, we’ll be working on removing what’s left of the structure.”
Updates on the project, as well as information for those interested in volunteering for river cleanup can be found at the West Virginia Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program’s Facebook page.