As spring returns, controversy swirls over a dam in East Burke. The land trust that owns the dam wants to tear it down. But other residents see the dam as an historic buttress to the local economy.
On the first summery day in May, two women in bicycle clothing sun themselves on flat rocks and dip their toes into the water of the Passumpsic River, just behind a bike store. Each summer, about 50,000 mountain bikers pedal the network called Kingdom Trails, and Kate Kramer says this is the idea place to cool off after a long ride.
"Well, one of the big draws for the Northeast Kingdom is the Kingdom Trails. And then on a Saturday and Sunday, this river is mobbed with people,” Kramer notes.
She and her biking pal Tara Aucoin would hate to see the dam removed, because it creates this relatively warm swimming spot.
But just downstream, Passumpsic Valley Land Trust President Leonard Gerardi points out a big hole in the rocky impoundment near the river bank. He says that shows the dam is broken, yet still blocks the natural flow of the river.
“One of the things that … the Passumpsic Valley Land Trust sees could be achieved by the removal of the dam is to restore that connectedness of sediment transport, of woody debris, of cobbles and gravel and boulders and gravel, which is interrupted by the dam at present,” he says over the roar of the water.
"One of the things that ... the Passumpsic Valley Land Trust sees could be achieved by the removal of the dam is to restore that connectedness of sediment transport ..." - Leonard Gerardi, president of the Passumpsic Valley Land Trust
Gerardi is a fisheries biologist for Vermont's Department of Fish and Wildlife, but says he keeps that job separate from his role as the president of the land trust. Gerardi lists the environmental benefits for removing the dam.
“Better oxygen, cooler temperature regime for fish, natural transport for sediment, connectivity so that fish can go up to necessary habitat, can come down,” he says.
The dam, Gerardi explains, creates a pool warm enough for human wading, but too warm for native fish to swim or spawn. Also, he says it aggravates, rather than prevents, flooding and presents recreational hazards. Paddlers, for example, ford around it or accidentally careen over it.
“Remove that dam and you now may have another half mile of class one to class three rapids that aren’t there,” he says.
But before the land trust can remove the dam, it needs the blessing of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. DEC is putting off approval until the trust clarifies its plan to remove built-up sediment. Opponents worry that the silt will end up downstream in Lyndonville, where it could exacerbate flooding.
"I've lived here 45 years and it hasn't changed a bit, and if that dam was removed the whole character of the village would change." - Ford Hubbard, farmer in Burke
That’s not the only reason Ford Hubbard, a prominent farmer in Burke, has been lobbying hard to keep the dam in place. As he explains on his front porch with the sound of chickens in the background, for him the dam is a local landmark that has, more or less, stood the test of time.
“I’ve lived here 45 years and it hasn’t changed a bit,” he says. “And if that dam was removed the whole character of the village would change.”
Hubbard says the dam built in 1931 has historic, aesthetic and monetary value to the recreational economy, even though it's in disrepair.
“I think that could be repaired a lot easier, or less expensive, than taking the dam out,” he says, and he’s circulated a petition signed by some like-minded neighbors.
But the Passumpsic Valley Land Trust, not the town, owns the dam, and has raised much of the money to remove it. The dispute over the future of this bend in the river has been roiling for 15 years, and the public hearing process isn’t over yet.
