Big crowd hears about some dam removal options
More than 400 attend meeting in St. Charles
By David Sharos
A crowd of more than 400 came to the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles on Wednesday night to learn more about options concerning the proposed removal of the dam on the Fox River in the city.
The program “Dam Alternatives and Understanding Options” was held as part of a series being offered by the Conservation Foundation focusing on the Fox River.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Fox River Study Group are partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess the feasibility of “restoring riverine habitat and connectivity for fishes, mussels and wildlife” along a stretch of the Fox River from Algonquin to Montgomery, officials have said.
A draft report released in the fall by the Corps of Engineers recommends removal of a number of dams along the Fox River, including those in Carpentersville, Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, Aurora and Montgomery.
According to the Corps of Engineers schedule, it plans to have a feasibility report on the plan approved by January 2025.
Michelle Geen, of St. Charles, who lives near the Fox River, said she came to the Wednesday meeting “to educate myself ” on options concerning the possible removal of the dam in the city.
“It’s in my best interest as a homeowner to see if this is going to increase or decrease property value,” she said. “My son has a restaurant right here on the river with his father and it’s been there for a long time. I don’t want this to affect their business.”
Jacob White, of St. Charles, said he lives on the north side of the Fox River and cares “about what’s going to happen to the river.”
“It’s a little hidden gem in the far Chicago suburbs that doesn’t exist anywhere else, and we want to keep it as it is if we can,” he said.
The featured speaker at the Wednesday event was Scott Shipley of S20 Design Group, who has led river restoration projects all over the world.
John Rabchuk, director of the River Corridor Foundation, spoke before Wednesday’s event, which he helped lead, and said the proposal to remove dams along the Fox River is an important issue.
“Our position is that there is really not a black-or-white option — that taking out the dam here in St. Charles, for example, has some detrimental aspects to it,” he said.
Rabchuk said that some popular boating and recreational activities in St. Charles could be adversely affected if the dam on the river is removed.
“The Corps wants to improve the ecology and other things and lower the phosphorous level by having the river flow a little bit faster,” he said. “The power boating, for example, would probably go away completely. The paddlewheel boats the St. Charles Park District runs out of Pottawatomie Park would go away.”
Rabchuk said he agreed with the Corps of Engineers about “some of the positives and the ecology on the river,” but he thinks “we can get most — but not all — of what the Corps wants by doing the Active River Project,” which has been discussed in St. Charles for a number of years.
In a recent letter to the editor to the Chicago
Tribune Rabchuk said the project’s plans are “supported by engineering studies that state there are viable solutions for holding the river’s current water level north of the Union Pacific railroad trestle and returning the river to its natural channel south of the trestle. The studies also address fish migration, safety and recreational activities.”
The project, Rabchuk said this week, would include “creating a whitewater stretch for recreation from the railroad trestle north of downtown all the way to the downtown area.”
The project would also create new shoreline property that could accommodate new riverfront trails and activities, he has said.
Shipley, a whitewater park engineer who has worked in the field for over 20 years, was the featured speaker at the 90-minute presentation Wednesday and said he was brought to St. Charles after being invited by the River Corridor Foundation.
He said the option for a whitewater stretch in St. Charles would take “the energy in the river and turn it back into a whitewater rapid and make it a tourist attraction — a central park for the town and a way to brand it as a destination for active, healthy outdoor lifestyles.”
Shipley said creating a whitewater experience “returns the river to its original form when the dam was created.”