RALEIGH -- New plans are rising to demolish and remove the 15-foot Milburnie Dam, the last man-made barrier along the Neuse River between Falls Lake and Pamlico Sound.
Restoration Systems, the Raleigh-based firm seeking approval, argues that pulling down the dam will release more than 32,000 linear feet of water and return the Neuse to a more natural state.
In their prospectus submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, they predict water quality will improve and migratory fish such as striped bass and American shad will get to swim and spawn farther upriver.
"If you just remove the dam, you open up a whole new world of habitat," said Adam Riggsbee, consultant to Restoration Systems. "It's almost instantaneous."
But residents along the river see a grim future for the Neuse without the dam, which dates to 1855. Water levels would drop so drastically that Raleigh's river would become a trickle, they say, spoiling the scenery just as the city is working to draw people there with greenways and pedestrian bridges.
They recall that the Corps turned down Restoration Systems last year, asking the firm to provide more data on the potential for draining wetlands and spreading toxic sediment.
"If they remove the dam, instead of having a nice beautiful river above the dam for the enjoyment of everyone, what we're going to have is a meandering little muddy steam that you and I can wade across," said James E. Smallwood, who lives just above the dam.
Meanwhile, the public has until Dec. 14 to comment.
Based in Raleigh, Restoration Systems has a long history of environmental mitigation banking, which means the firm does work to improve ecology and receives credits for that work. Those credits can then be sold to public and private developers doing construction projects that negatively impact wetlands.
As proposed, those credits could be used in a territory following the Neuse basin and its immediate surroundings, an area that stretches roughly from Person to Craven counties.
'Decimated' river
In recent years, Restoration Systems has taken out dams on the Deep and Little rivers nearby. Reviews are mixed.
Kenly Mayor David Grady said the Little River is narrow and shallow enough to jump across within three miles of the spot where the dam was removed. "The fish that they were supposed to spawn were going to have to grow legs, because they dried the river up," he said. "They absolutely decimated the river."
On the Deep River near the Chatham-Lee county border, taking out the dam rid the river of oil slicks and algae blooms in the lake-like water, said Dick Harrison of the Deep River Parks Association.
"Everything has turned out very good for us," he said. "The water quality, the fish, the wildlife. I actually had five teenagers baptized down there."
The firm's prospectus is more than six times longer than its 2010 proposal, and it addresses the wetlands concerns by estimating that roughly 11 acres would be threatened by removing the dam.
As to the sediments, Restoration Systems points to a study conducted in August by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Raleigh. Data from the study were not included in the firm's prospectus, but a draft report of the findings was provided to The News & Observer.
Dr. Tom Augspurger, ecologist and contaminants specialist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, reported pollutants in the samples collected both above and below the dam were lower than the level of concern.
Also, he said pollutants in sediment below the dam were typically higher than above, concluding that removing the dam is unlikely to increase pollution downriver.
Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Alissa Bierma said she supports removing the dam to make the Neuse more free-flowing. But she thinks the area where mitigation credits could be used should be smaller.
If the Corps approves Restoration Systems' prospectus for the Neuse, it would still have to issue a permit later. Taking out the dam, if approved, would take years.
