This is the second dam upstream of the Long Island Sound. It holds an unused former reservoir. This dam cannot be removed because it has been deemed by the NYSDOT to have flood control capacity.
This project therefore was designed to study alternative options for alewife and eel passage past the dam.
Four options were considered: Three fish ladder structures and one bypass stream.
• The bypass stream would be preferred on a fishpass efficiency basis. There is sufficient unbuilt and publicly-owned land for a bypass stream to be built with a 3% grade. However, this was the most expensive option.
• Fish ladders in various locations and to different heights relative to the sediment level and the top of the dam were considered.
• The most obvious site, at the spillway into a cutout, was eliminated because of structural unknowns and adjacency to the Hutchinson River Parkway only 20 feet away. Though further structural analysis may revalidate its consideration.
• The final result was that effective fish passage was feasible but more detailed dam structural analysis would be required to identify the ideal location for a fish ladder. And more detailed financial analysis to reconsider the bypass.
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