Deadbeat dam: Harrower Pond Dam

An impaired dam with history on the North Chuctanunda Creek

The issue of the safety of the Harrower Pond Dam in the Mohawk Watershed was recently highlighted in a report by the Associated Press about impaired high-hazard dams that I wrote about recently.  After the AP report came out, the local Amsterdam Recorder ran a piece about this dam. 

This deadbeat dam should be removed (or partially removed) for safety, regardless of ownership issues, which are apparently complicated. One approach would be to preserve part of the dam and the historical turbine works, but remove a significant fraction of the dam that blocks the North Chuctanunda. Such a compromise could highlight the mill and textile history of this area while simultaneously addressing safety issues. Built in 1870, the dam has an interesting history that is important to preserve.

Deadbeat dams are receiving attention across the nation for several reasons. One is that they become increasingly hazardous as they age. The golden age of dam building ended decades ago and many have outlived their usefulness, and thus we are now dealing with this legacy. In some sense our relationship with dams has entered a new phase and removal is an increasingly common approach to restoration. Another reason for the attention is a fuller appreciation for how they impair ecosystem health. The call to tear town deadbeat dams is getting louder, and there have been a few stunning cases in the Northeast, like in Maine, where dam removal has transformed fish passage and ecosystem health. The recently released film Undamming the Hudson River is a short film Jon Bowermaster that highlights the efforts by Riverkeeper to take down obsolete dams in the Hudson. Yvon Chouinard is one environmental advocate who has been a strong and vocal advocate for the removal of deadbeat dams nationally, primarily for ecosystem restoration.

Harrower Pond Dam  is #189-0907 in NYSDEC inventory of dams in the Town of Amsterdam (just outside City of Amsterdam limits) and it is a High Hazard dam (Class C) that is privately owned. Since May 1980 it has been identified as being unsound, but ownership issues and money have gummed up the works, and thus it has languished for decades. The site is currently gated, locked, and posted. 

The Harrower Pond Dam, built in 1870, is an impaired NY State High hazard dam (Class C) in the town of Amsterdam (photo: JI Garver, Nov. 2019).

I visited the site in mid-November 2019 and was treated to an impromptu tour of the dam by the amiable caretaker of the site.  The dam structure was integrated into the old mill site, but the mill is now completely gone (paving and concrete in foreground in photo).  The caretaker of the property showed us the stone outlines of the holding ponds, the western side of the dam, and the incredibly interesting turbine works. 

Lodged deep inside the western side of the dam (left on photo) is the turbine, which still lies in a dark limestone-block room that is integrated into the dam structure.   The large, cylindrical, rusty turbine is about 5 feet in diameter; a small face plate on the side notes that it was built by Swain Turbine Manufacturing, Lowell MA.  It is possible that this turbine is original, and hence from c. 1870.

The dam has been breached in the center, reportedly by the State, so the entire flow of the North Chuctanunda Creek flows through this center breached section (at low flow), which is small compared to the entire length of the dam (maybe 10%).  The North Chuctanunda Creek is a small stream with a drainage basin area of about 35 square miles upstream of the dam and a total of 41 square miles at the confluence with the Mohawk.

An “immediate hazard” (…40 years ago)

Part of the first page of the 1980 DEC report that identified the impairment of the dam. It notes that the inspection “…revealed conditions which constitute an immediate hazard to human life.” While the water level was lowered, the dam has not been rehabilitated since this initial discovery.

The DEC report from May 1980 suggests that the dam was originally built in about 1870. It is a 25-ft high masonry earth dam with a masonry core wall. The upstream impoundment could originally store about 300 acre feet of water (top of dam) and the reservoir behind the dam was about 30 surface acres, but is now smaller because the center part of the dam has been breached.  It had two 2’ x 4’ spillway sluice gates. In 1980 it was estimated that the dam could only pass 10% of the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF, calculated as 26,400 cfs), which would be about 2640 cfs.  It was estimated that this level of flow would be attained if the basin received 0.1 ft (1.2 inches) in 24 hours (see page 10). Due to the finding of impairment in May 1980, it was partly breached.

But a confusing aspect of this story is that it is reported here and elsewhere (and other places) that the State breached the dam out of safety concerns. The story appears to be more complicated. When the dam impairment was discovered in 1980, permission was not granted to remove stoplogs in the center of the dam. Part of the issue is that there was difficulty serving a State Abatement Order because the owner could not be located (see Appendix F in DEC report here).

In a NYS DEC Memorandum from 28 May 1980, we find that the dam was actually breached by local residents out of concern for their own safety. The DEC apparently didn’t do the breaching probably because it didn’t have the authority at the time. On 23 May 1980 during a followup DEC inspection it was discovered by inspectors that local residents were clearing brush and then cutting stoplogs in the center of the dam. By the 28th of May a total of 10 stoplogs were removed and this lowered the center part of the dam (and the pond behind it) by about 6 feet. Power to the people.

Diagram showing the mill site and the Harrower Pond Dam from the 2013 DEC report on the remediation of the Mill site. This figure has been modified to show key features discussed in this post.

The Pioneer Street Mill was a textile mill constructed in 1871 and eventually repurposed, but essentially abandoned by 2000. It has since been demolished and removed. A recent DEC report indicates that the groundwater below the site is contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with minor pesticides and metals, which is potentially important in the context of benthic aquatic organisms in the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The buildings were demolished and the site covered with clean soil. The PAH contamination remains below grade (it is covered).

A major issue with this dam and many deadbeat dams is ownership (hence the problem with the 1980 breach outlined above). The recent study on aging dams in the US and in New York released by the Associated Press notes:

The Harrower Pond dam is on a former textile mill site that was transferred to the town of Amsterdam by a New Jersey man who bought it at a foreclosure auction, DiMezza said. The town [of Amsterdam] demolished the mill and removed drums of waste to make way for a park but never took ownership of the dam, he said. State inspectors have sent four notices of violations to the New Jersey man since 2008 and received no response.

NY Rising

The dam issue was addressed by a NY Rising taskforce in 2014. NY Rising was a NY State effort following Irene and Lee flooding (and Sandy), to address flood mitigation at the municipal level. There were many municipal NY Rising plans across the State, and the dam was addressed in the Amsterdam-Florida plan. The NY Rising proposal was to fix the dam for potential flood retention and restore recreational opportunities along the creek and pond (mainly trails). In this planning document, the potential environmental benefits of fixing and restoring the dam are highlighted.

“Creating floodplain buffer areas will mitigate flooding. It will provide environmental benefits by retaining and infiltrating stormwater thereby minimizing the potential for erosion and the transport of pollutants from stormwater runoff. It will also minimize public and private property damage in this area due to flooding. New habitat for fish and wildlife will be created by redeveloping the ponded area

To do this, $1.5 million was budgeted for feasibility studies to determine how the integrated trail system and dam rehab would proceed. The cost to actually fix the dam was (and probably still is) unknown. It seems as though this study did not happen but presumably other projects did get funded under this NY Rising effort. Maybe dam removal, or partial removal was considered, but that option is not apparent from the document.

Historic gem or Deadbeat dam?

Given the unique and important history of this site, the realities of dam safety, and the expense of dam ownership and maintenance, perhaps a compromise solution would make sense. Why not remove the main part of the dam (D2 in diagram above) that poses a hazard, but leave the historic part that houses the turbine works (D1 in diagram above)? Make it a small interpretative park that celebrates the mill history and textile industry of Amsterdam.

Removal of part of the dam, and a slight realignment of the course of the North Chuctanunda would benefit the riparian system. This approach has been taken across the country, and a nice example of this is on the Chagrin River in Ohio. We can celebrate our past, but we need to ensure that hazards are mitigated.

Plan of part of the powerhouse from plans published during work done on the dam in 1931 - the stonework still exists.  The powerhouse sat above the turbine, and the turbine room remains in place. Perhaps celebrating this history will be part of the path forward for this site.

This situation has been with us for decades, and perhaps its time to move the process forward. In November 1981 the situation of impaired dams identified by the Army Corps was reviewed by the NY Times in an article that noted:

“New York was forced to breach the Harrower Pond Dam on Chuctanunda Creek in Montgomery County when the owner failed to make repairs. Mr. Koch said New York was having difficulty in getting compensation for the $3,000 repair because it was unable to find the owner. ''This one is a real can of worms,'' Mr. Koch said.

It still is a can of worms, but a solution is possible.

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This and other Notes from a Watershed are available at: https://mohawk.substack.com/