Dam demolition doomed

Sean Spitzer/The Lantern Located just down the Olentangy from Ohio Stadium, the dam at Fifth Avenue has been the subject of recent talks regarding possible demolition.

The demolition of the Fifth Avenue Dam is in jeopardy due to federal budget cuts, according to a Feb. 1 press release from the city.

Of the total $1.82 million cost of the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had agreed to pay $1.2 million, but that entire amount has been cut. The city had agreed to pay the remaining $640,000, which are the fines owed by the city for sewer overflows into rivers.

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the city are asking the federal government to restore its share of costs for the project, according to the press release. City utility officials were planning to demolish the dam south of the Ohio State campus before the end of 2008.

"This project might not happen now," said Heather Dean, coordinator for the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed. "I don't know what (the federal budget cut) will mean for the future of the project."

The two-year project would remove the dam to improve the water quality, aquatic habitat and riverbank vegetation of the lower Olentangy River, the project coordinators said on the project Web site. The dam distorts the river's natural water flow and fish migration, adds sediment and reduces oxygen levels in the water.

"You're going to have a cleaner waterway because you don't have accumulation behind the dam," said Rick Tilton, utilities spokesman.

The city is in the design phase of the demolition project and would try to meet the state deadline for September 2008 though there is no set timetable, said Tilton.

Sean Spitzer/The Lantern Hydrogen and oxygen molecules of the Olentangy River rush over the dam at Fifth Avenue, which may or may not be torn down.

An OSU research team has also joined in the "Lower Olentangy River Ecosystem Restoration" project that would include monitoring the ecological, chemical and physical features of the river before and after the dam is removed.

"After the dam is removed, the initial reaction is people will be shocked and wonder where the river went," said Bill Mitsch, director of the Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park and OSU professor of the School of Environment and Natural Resources.

The removal of the dam will make the river much narrower with mud flats, Mitsch said.

"It'll take a couple of floods to get it sorted out, to get green grass again. It might take 10 years," Mitsch said. "But then people will say 'Boy, that is the most beautiful river I've ever seen!'"

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has provided the research team a Clean Waters Act grant for cleanup costs and riverbank vegetation planting that will likely be needed once the river narrows and exposes the banks, said Mike Gallaway, surface water manager for the Ohio EPA's central district.

Mitsch advises the restoration process should be a natural process even if it takes longer.

The city, however, is considering planting native riverbank vegetation in order to speed up the restoration process.

"A lot of people will not understand and will be unhappy with the immediate appearance of the river after the dam is removed," Gallaway said. "It'll look better for the football season."

The 5th Avenue Dam removal is feasible because it contains no sewer lines and is also the area with the greatest habitat loss, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2007 feasibility study.

The 470-foot, low-head dam was built in 1935 to provide cooling water for the OSU power plant, but the dam is no longer used to supply water. Currently, its only use is to retain a pond used by the OSU crew members, according to the feasibility study.

Ingrid Rivera can be reached at rivera.153@osu.edu.