Presentation about dam removal

MANAWA – A presentation will be held at the in Manawa Masonic Center on June 7 highlighting the process that the City of Baraboo went through in removing three dams on the Baraboo River.
Joe Van Berkel was the Sauk county conservationist in the early 2000s, when he was alerted to the fact that three dams on the Baraboo River had fallen into disrepair and needed to be replaced in order to keep their licensing.
“The community here went through a lot of the same experiences that you’re dealing with now in Manawa,” he said. “It was very controversial and generated a lot of interest in the community.”
The first dam was built on the Baraboo River in 1846 and the last dam was removed in 2001.
All three dams were hydroelectric, with two of them still being used for a small amount of power generation, Van Berkel said.

The first dam removed was owned by the city, due to the fact it could no longer generate power, and the other two were owned privately.
Van Berkel said it was a long and drawn out process, with a lot of community involvement, public meetings and campaigns fighting for both sides of the issue, ultimately it was decided that the dams would be removed.
After the first dam was removed, the debate continued.
“The most critical one was the first one that set the tone. And then environmental groups became interested, the DNR was very interested because of the improved habitat it would provide,” Van Berkel said.
The removal of the three dams on the Baraboo River made for the longest stretch of restored river due to dam removal at the time, the stretch of river being 120 miles that was reclaimed.
“It got a lot of attention both nationally and internationally because of that,” he said.
Van Berkel said the Baraboo River has wildly improved since the dam removal almost 20 years ago.
The smallmouth bass populations have grown, with a number of fish species returning.
It is also used for canoeing and kayaking and has become economic driver in the community, Van Berkel said.
“In some of these smaller upriver communities are evolving now 20 years later where they’re putting landings in,” he said. “Also starting to see the value of the restoration and benefit it provides to their community.”
In the end, Van Berkel said, they could not justify the cost of replacing the dams, coming down to the economics of removal versus repair, which is something Manawa may have to face should funding not be available.
Currently the City of Manawa has submitted a request to receive funds from the state’s budget next year, as well as looking into federal and Army Corp of Engineers grants that could help re-build the Manawa dam.
Mayor Mike Frazier said that without the funding the city does not have the tax base to fund such a large expenditure.
The cost of removing the dam is $700,000 while the cost to rebuild a spillway dam, which would not have hydroelectric capabilities, has come in at $8.4 million, Frazier said.
Cedar Corporation, the engineering company working with the city on the dam, suspects that the dam bidding process will be competitive with the hope that the bid could come in lower than expected.
The presentation will be June 7 at 1 p.m. at the Manawa Masonic Center at 520 North Bridge Street. Visit Friends of the Little Wolf Facebook page for more information.