Kinneytown Dam in Seymour looks practically idyllic rimmed in two-day-old mid-February snow as the Naugatuck River cascades off its ledges. But this hulk of a structure, however majestically flowing, is causing more harm than anything.
Originally built around 1840 in the river鈥檚 industrial age of mills, the dam stopped generating its small amount of hydropower about five years ago. The artificially high part of the river created upstream by the man-made falls poses flooding risks to Route 8 on one side and a Metro-North rail line on the other. The base of the falls, which is a large concrete apron that transitions to a boulder-strewn river, often becomes a fish graveyard 鈥� those that go plunging over the falls and those migratory ones that can鈥檛 make it up a poorly constructed fish ladder that by all accounts has never worked well.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have good downstream passage as well as upstream passage, you can pass them upstream all you want, but it鈥檚 going to kill them on the way down,鈥� said Laura Wildman, a fisheries water resource engineer and vice president of ecological restoration for the advocacy group Save the Sound, which for years has pushed for and assisted with dam removals.
. More than $16 million 鈥� mostly federal money augmented with a little state funding 鈥� has been made available for its removal, though a good bit more will likely be needed.
But Kinneytown is just one of thousands of aging dams in the state that challenge those that oversee and regulate them 鈥� public officials, environmentalists, landowners, utilities and almost every community with conflicting interests and priorities.
Historically, dams have provided power, recreational enhancement and water supplies, but their environmental impacts have been a focus for state and national advocates for decades. Climate change is now exacerbating those impacts.
More recently, dams are being considered for their potential to contribute to 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 quest for more renewable energy.
The competing interests and responsibilities around these structures are playing out in increasingly urgent, but often uneasy, ways.
Dams, dams and more dams
The puts the number of dams in 黑料吃瓜网 at approximately 4,800. If that sounds like a lot, that鈥檚 because it is. Based on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers information, that鈥檚 believed to be the highest number of dams per 100 river miles of any state in the nation.
The vast majority of 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 dams have histories that go back more than 100 years (though some are much older), range in size from small to tiny, and are privately owned. Most are not even noticeable 鈥� a waterfall here, a cute little pond there that in reality are the products of a dam redirecting water flow. And they likely would have remained unnoticed if not for a at a small, poorly maintained dam with longstanding non-compliance issues.
The Fitchville Pond Dam along the Yantic River in Bozrah catapulted dams in 黑料吃瓜网 into public consciousness, at least briefly. Storms and runoff 鈥� likely intensified by climate change 鈥� caused the January problem, just as they have caused flooding and dam breaches around the state in recent years.
Last summer, old earthen dams proved no match for a series of storms as washed out some areas in the Northwest part of the state. Many of those old dams were actually part of a dam-building frenzy after 1955 that was aimed at preventing further such catastrophes.
While dam issues can cross several state departments, local and federal jurisdictions, . It maintains a as well as a that is so crowded, it is almost impossible to read without zooming in to miniscule areas at a time.
The most important regulations concern safety. Classifications include hazard level 鈥� 鈥渉igh鈥� and 鈥渟ignificant鈥� being the two worst. High hazard denotes a probable loss of life if a dam failure occurs. Then there are condition categories that range from unsatisfactory to good, based on an engineers鈥� investigations.
At last count, DEEP said 567 dams fall into the two worst hazard categories, and 66 of those are considered to be in poor condition. Owners of dams in the high and significant hazard categories are required to file what鈥檚 known as an emergency action plan with DEEP, although they have no responsibility to tell nearby residents if they are living in a dam breach inundation zone.
鈥淭hose emergency action plans have inundation mapping, so we know, if that dam were to fail, what areas would be inundated,鈥� said Chuck Lee, assistant director of dam safety programs at DEEP. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 require the dam owner to notify people downstream. It does require the dam owner to notify emergency personnel and give a copy of that emergency action plan to any municipality that would be affected.鈥�
has put the onus on dam owners to inspect and complete repairs and emergency action plans as needed. It has enabled DEEP to better account for its dams, especially those at highest risk, and better maintain them.
In that requires property sellers to indicate if there is a registered dam on their property. In many cases dams can be so obscure that property buyers may not even be aware of their existence, let alone understand the requirements owning one.
Dams were built for many purposes. Those that generate electricity, control flooding and supply water are the kinds most likely to be kept in use. Some were built for recreation, providing large and small water bodies 鈥� referred to as impoundments 鈥� calmer and safer than the river itself.
Many, many more in 黑料吃瓜网, however, were built in the 1800s to run mill operations for everything from textile manufacturing to grinding grain. Many of these have been left to essentially rot, posing all kinds of hazards, likely to be felt more profoundly due to the extremes of climate change.
Torrential rains and runoff put more pressure on dams that were not built to handle those volumes of water. Drought and heat can result in other problems.
鈥淭hat sort of speaks to the requirement for owner-responsible inspections,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淭hose inspections we鈥檙e receiving are much more detailed than we would have done in the past. And what part of that inspection will look at is the spillway and the capacity of that spillway.鈥�
Even if components like a spillway are adequate to meet the Army Corps of Engineers standards the department uses, Lee said that when owners come in for permits, his office will push them to increase spillway sizes to accommodate the unknowns of climate change and to even think about .
But very few permits are requested in any given year compared to the number of dams.
Advocates argue there鈥檚 a lot more to consider environmentally than whether a spillway is big enough.
Dams and their environment
鈥淥ne of the things that people don鈥檛 realize about rivers is that they transport water and sediment. And that鈥檚 a delicate balance,鈥� said Wildman, of Save the Sound.
What she means is that if you put in a dam in a river, instead of allowing for the natural erosion and rebuilding process that fills deltas and beaches downstream, the river leaves sediment and contaminants clogged behind the dam. Just about anything in or around the river can wind up stuck there too 鈥� from fish to mussels, to aquatic invertebrates to little bugs to turtles.
These beings need to move for all kinds of reasons 鈥� their life cycles, to avoid predators, and to deal with the changing climate, re: moving to cooler waters if it鈥檚 too hot in one area.
鈥淎nything you affect as far as the aquatic species affects the terrestrial species, the birds of prey, the bears, the raccoons everything else,鈥� Wildman said. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e putting a dam in this dynamic, interconnected ecosystem, you鈥檙e changing all these natural processes and functions, and it has a cascading effect.鈥�
But don鈥檛 think a fish ladder or fish passage that鈥檚 supposed to help migrating fish up over a dam to spawn upstream will fix it. They鈥檙e species-specific, leaving the majority of fish behind. And if there鈥檚 no way to get the fish back down, then it鈥檚 for nothing.
鈥淔ish passages, fishways are horrifically inefficient,鈥� Wildman said. 鈥淭he most recent studies show fish passages can be, in best case scenarios, like 50% passage, and worst case scenarios zero, and many of the fishways we have in 黑料吃瓜网 actually probably aren鈥檛 passing any fish.鈥�
Dams arguably are a key reason Atlantic salmon are basically gone from 黑料吃瓜网. And they鈥檙e no small part of why shad, river herring and lamprey eels are reduced to tiny populations.
That鈥檚 not the extent of the problems caused by dams, however.
Over decades, the build-up of impervious surfaces like roads and buildings are producing more and more runoff that, in turn, stresses dam systems built when roads were often porous dirt and there were fewer people.
The runoff now carries more debris, chemicals, septic contamination and potential toxins than it did a century ago, dumping all of this into rivers and dammed bodies of water. This creates a contamination stew that can also heat water, making it more hospitable to invasive species, dangerous insects and other types of growth.
The impacts of climate change and weather extremes can make the situation even worse. There鈥檚 less flushing and aeration of the water and lower dissolved oxygen, which leads to toxic algae blooms in the less dynamic water bodies created by dams.
Rainbow Reservoir on the Farmington River in Windsor still has an active small hydro-electric plant, but even that amount of water movement has not prevented algae from growing.
鈥淭hree separate summers, the algae blooms got to such high levels that the water became toxic,鈥� Wildman said. 鈥淚t would have been dangerous for your pets or your children, or anyone for that matter.鈥�
And that鈥檚 just the short list of reasons removal is often the preferred course of action for so many of the state鈥檚 dams 鈥� something DEEP supports when it鈥檚 appropriate and feasible.
鈥淚f anything comes from this emergency and almost tragedy in Bozrah, we hope it will be really a renewed interest in barrier removal or dam removal,鈥� said Graham Stevens, bureau chief for water protection and land reuse at DEEP.
The key question, he said, is whether the dam is still serving its intended purpose. For instance, if water regularly pours over a spillway of a flood control dam, then it鈥檚 causing flooding, not preventing it.
Stevens points to Dana Dam on the Norwalk River in Wilton, removed last September with help from a number of groups that had fought for nearly a quarter-of-a-century to eliminate the dam. The cost was nearly $4 million, and it opened a fish passage that had been blocked for 125 years and almost immediately narrowed the channel, allowing for better water flow.
鈥淲e really want to work with dam owners, municipalities, nonprofit organizations, to strategically address dams that no longer serve their intended purpose and that pose a risk so that 黑料吃瓜网 is better positioned to deal with the effects of climate change,鈥� Stevens said.
But some people have begun pushing for another option for at least a few of the state鈥檚 old dams. A legislatively mandated task force has been looking into repurposing some for hydropower, which is considered renewable energy.
Could hydro help?
The by Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford, the house ranking member on the Energy and Technology Committee. Buckbee runs a nonprofit park where the Still River meets the Housatonic, not far from some of the state鈥檚 biggest hydropower dams.
Aside from the park flooding more regularly, either from storms or from letting more water out of the nearby impoundments to deal with those storms, Buckbee said his research determined that hydro is keeping energy rates down in other parts of the country.
鈥淲hy aren鈥檛 we rethinking things here?鈥� he said. 鈥淓very time people talk green energy, that means we鈥檙e talking wind or solar, wind or solar, wind or solar. 鈥� We have to explore the other options and see what鈥檚 going to be the safest and the most economical.鈥�
He鈥檚 not talking about the tiny dams 鈥� some of those, he said, should come out. But he figures some dams could be upgraded. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you can make great decisions unless you鈥檙e looking at the whole picture,鈥� he said in explaining the point of a task force.
The legislation received few comments. that essentially just offered assistance.
Since then, the task force has been criticized for being top-heavy with energy industry representation, with only one environmental advocate. The report, due Feb. 1, has now been delayed to April 1.
The task force chair is Len Greene, vice president of external affairs for FirstLight Energy, which, by its account, owns about 84% of the total installed capacity of hydropower in the state 鈥� about 10 of the roughly three dozen active hydropower operations.
黑料吃瓜网 doesn鈥檛 buy a drop of FirstLight鈥檚 power.
The nearly 91 megawatts 鈥� roughly enough to power around 68,000 homes 鈥� generated by four of FirstLight鈥檚 plants is all purchased by an array of municipal electric operations in Massachusetts through contracts that don鈥檛 expire until sometime between 2029 and 2040. Among those plants is the largest hydro in the state at 42.6 megawatts 鈥� Shepaug Dam on the Housatonic River in Southbury and Newtown 鈥� and the Stevenson Dam in Monroe, providing 28 megawatts.
By way of comparison, the two largest hydro operations in New England are on the upper 黑料吃瓜网 River between Vermont and New Hampshire 鈥� Moore Dam at 192 megawatts and Comerford Station at 168 megawatts.
The point of the task force is to assess whether it鈥檚 worth getting some of 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 many old dams, just sitting there producing no power, back in operation to help increase the renewable power mix.
The answer, according to Greene, is maybe.
The big issue, likely to no one鈥檚 surprise, is money.
鈥淭he very, very few dams that exist right now that could be powered, the reality is that it鈥檚 incredibly expensive to build, incredibly difficult from a regulatory standpoint,鈥� Greene said. 鈥淏ut even if you got over those hurdles, building and maintaining those facilities without a solid revenue stream is impossible.鈥�
Even for dams that are already powered, it鈥檚 a stretch, said Duncan Broatch, chair of the and a task force member.
Broatch, who has rehabbed a number of small dams in the state, owns Dayville Hydro, which generates 100 kilowatts. That鈥檚 0.1 megawatts. The problem the way Broatch sees it is 黑料吃瓜网 only pays hydro owners like him the wholesale rate for their power 鈥� an approximate, meager 3 cents per kilowatt hour. That means he makes about $11,000 gross revenue annually. His insurance runs $5,000, and he has to pay people to maintain and repair his dam.
鈥淚 lose money every year,鈥� he said. 鈥淔ifteen cents [per kilowatt hour] would keep projects like this in the black.鈥�
He said that amount would cover relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which issues licenses or exemptions to all hydropower dams, and would help dam owners upgrade their systems as new technology becomes available.
鈥満诹铣怨贤� is way behind; it鈥檚 embarrassing how they have neglected hydro,鈥� Broatch said. He鈥檇 like to see hydro get the same kind of consideration from the state as wind and solar. 鈥淭he main thing in my mind is to save the ones that are still running so they don鈥檛 close up shop, and also those ones that were decommissioned 鈥� put those back on line.鈥�
Hydropower has a problematic status in the environmental community. Although it is not carbon-emitting like fossil fuel power, there are greenhouse gas emissions associated with it.
It can also suffer from the effects of climate change. Hydro in the western U.S. and Canada has literally dried up during recent droughts. Even the Northeast, which buys big Canadian hydro, has faced temporary cutoffs 鈥� as recently as last summer 鈥� when heat and wildfires spurred by those droughts resulted in transmission shutdowns.
Hydro also often includes intentionally flooding certain areas to provide water sources, which has meant submerging towns, which was the case with Candlewood Lake north of Danbury when it was created in 1926 as part of the still-operating Rocky River hydro plant.
Pumping water into a reservoir, which certain types of hydro do, often requires a lot of power and can cause portions of a river to flow backwards for periods of time.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a good possibility that some of those that are out there now are not worth saving and may have much, much higher environmental impact than they鈥檙e worth,鈥� Greene said.
But Greene also notes that hydros have a lot of flexibility. FirstLight, he said, is looking to potentially pair its dams with battery storage and other renewables. For instance, it鈥檚 considering putting solar panels on dams or at the Shepaug facility, on the adjacent land.
Environmental advocates urge caution for a variety of reasons.
Wildman, the lone advocate on the task force, and others repeatedly point out that even small hydro can have significant environmental impacts, which is why Wildman would like to see the focus on larger hydro facilities, especially those not on the main stem of a river where a dam can diminish water flow in the upstream tributaries.
鈥淵es, they have significant impacts on the ecosystem, but we鈥檙e getting a significant amount of power and economic benefits out of these. I would rather have the impacts in fewer spots and get more benefit from that one spot than spread the energy out over an entire landscape,鈥� she said.
She and others also suggest that the best candidates for producing power are dams that already serve a critical purpose such as flood control 鈥� the state has about 75 of these dams 鈥� or large-scale recreation with economic benefits.
鈥淎 good example of a dam that I think should be producing hydropower [is] Colebrook dam,鈥� said Alicea Charamut, executive director of the , who is not on the task force but has monitored its work.
Colebrook was one of several dams built for flood control after the 1955 floods. Its three-megawatt hydro component was shut down a few years ago.
鈥淭hat dam鈥檚 not going anywhere. It鈥檚 a flood control dam. It鈥檚 a dam behind another dam,鈥� Charamut said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a very good example of something that should be incentivized.鈥�
She and others point to the Upper Collinsville hydro, also known as the Canton hydro. It was re-activated last year 鈥� more than half-a-century after the hydro portion of the dam, built in the 1860s, shut down 鈥� with a $6.5 million retrofit with state-of-the-art equipment and a fishway. The lower Collinsville dam, on the other hand, is slated for removal, and Charamut said that鈥檚 the right move.
鈥淭here has already been a feasibility study that says that it is not going to be economically feasible,鈥� she said.
Given the flooding and extreme storms in the last few years, Greene said that dams that were never designed for flood control are essentially serving that function anyway by releasing water from impoundments in anticipation of large volumes of stormwater and runoff.
鈥淲e have to manage that water as best as we can to try to mitigate flooding where we can. At some point, though, the river just takes over, and it doesn鈥檛 matter what we do,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e basically just have to open all of the gates up and just let the water through.鈥�
As to the question of whether 黑料吃瓜网 should look to nature or hydro as a way to deal with its dams, there鈥檚 no single answer.
But for Kinneytown Dam, the answer is clear to Aaron Budris, environmental planning director at the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a really good example of hydro is not necessarily a bad idea, but hydro in a bad location is a bad idea. And I think Kinneytown Dam is in just a really bad location.鈥�
Losing Kinneytown
Kinneytown is the first dam on the Naugatuck, so it essentially blocks migratory fish from the entire river. Until Kinneytown is removed, Tingue Dam 鈥� a mile north 鈥� is stuck with a brand-new, but essentially useless, $7 million fishway and adjacent park. Tingue was not removed because its structure is intertwined with a road over the river. After Tingue, there鈥檚 no dam until Thomaston.
Kinneytown actually has two powerhouses 鈥� a bigger one in Seymour and a smaller one in Ansonia. Ansonia stopped operating in 2010, Seymour in 2019. It鈥檚 arguably 30 years behind on maintenance after having changed ownership a number of times. And it can鈥檛 always handle the kinds of water flows extreme storms are producing.
鈥淚t is an example of small hydro that鈥檚 no longer a viable place to create electricity,鈥� Budris said.
Best case scenario, it will take another couple of years to remove Kinneytown, which in the last 90 years.
Small earthen dams are relatively easy to remove, compared to a big, concrete dam like Kinneytown. Some of the removal problems stem from the Naugatuck River鈥檚 industrial history. Not only was it known for changing colors depending on what had been dumped in it, it also caught fire in the 1940s.
The remnants of all that contamination can likely be found in the sediment that has built up behind the dam, downstream at the Ansonia portion, and in the canal and pond between them. Disposing of that sediment will be tricky at best.
鈥淚 think towns that own dams, they鈥檙e starting to come to terms with the real cost of owning that type of infrastructure. And I think if you remove a dam, it鈥檚 a one-time cost,鈥� Budris said. 鈥淚f you want to keep it, you have to maintain it, you have to inspect it, you have to work on it. It鈥檚 a lifetime of costs.鈥�
River experts say little river restoration will most likely be needed at Kinneytown or other dam removals.
鈥淭here is no more effective way to restore a river than to take out a dam,鈥� said Colleen McNally-Murphy, associate national director of the . 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e seen time and time again is that the rivers can heal themselves. It takes time. It鈥檚 not necessarily overnight. But again and again, we鈥檝e seen that once a dam is out, the river heals itself faster than people expect.鈥�
After Kinneytown is removed, the flood risk the area faces now from all the impounded water will basically disappear, and the river will be able to open up to greater recreational use.
Laura Wildman from Save the Sound tramps through snow, past the rusted metal of the old hydro station above the inert fish ladder, careful to avoid rotted flooring.
She said that she sees taking out the dam as the key to turning what was once an industrial sewer of a river back into what she called a 鈥済em.鈥�
And then added: 鈥淚鈥檝e always said it鈥檚 my favorite river I鈥檝e ever worked on because it鈥檚 the one that needs me the most.鈥�
This story was originally March 10, 2024.