Whitewater release set for Ball Mountain Dam
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: June 27, 2009
JAMAICA — It may be the first full weekend of summer, but there's going to be a spring-like whitewater release this weekend on the West River, thanks to the Ball Mountain Dam.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been holding water in the lake behind the dam for the past week, as engineers install new technology to monitor the flow at the dam, as well as the seepage coming out at the foot of the earthen dam.
The Corps has doubled the amount of water it usually holds behind the dam, and it started releasing it Friday at noon, and will increase it to a level of 1,500 cubic feet per second, which it hopes to sustain all day today and Sunday until the afternoon, according to Phillip Morrison, ranger at the lake.
Whitewater enthusiasts lost their usual springtime release this year because state and federal fisheries experts determined that the Atlantic salmon smolt were migrating earlier than originally believed, putting the fish in conflict with the usual late-April release.
The release, which had traditionally drawn thousands of people to the West River Valley for a weekend of water-based recreation in early spring, was cancelled.
Morrison said the level behind the dam was currently 110 feet, while the normal level is 65 feet.
He said the Corps is worried about the effect the high water levels are having on the trees along the river, as some species aren't very tolerant of being underwater.
He said all of the land that is currently inundated is owned by the Corps, and the high water hasn't affected the Corps campground in South Londonderry.
He said for the salmon migrating this spring, the water level behind the dam level was dropped to 25 feet.
The Ball Mountain Dam is the highest earthen dam in New England; it was completed in 1960 after four years of construction, in an effort to lessen downstream flooding in Massachusetts and Connecticut, along with the companion flood control dam downstream at Townshend.
Morrison said the seepage through the foot of the earthen dam was normal, but the Corps wanted to be able to monitor via satellite at its Concord, Mass., headquarters. The new equipment installed in the past week will help the Corps do that, he said.
Dale Berkness, park ranger for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Ball Mountain, said the new release was already posted on whitewater Internet message boards, and he hoped the word would spread about the last-minute release.
One advantage of the summer release is that the normally frigid river temperatures in late April have moderated. As of Friday, the West River was already 59 degrees at the Corps' monitoring point, two miles below the dam.
Morrison said that even though the Corps didn't have its annual springtime release, there was plenty of good paddling because water levels were high this spring, thanks to spring runoff and spring rains.
The spring runoff is usually a boon to the state-owned Jamaica State Park, where many of the paddlers camp or use as a base for their weekend.
The West River Trail, from the state park to the dam, is located on the bed of the former West River Railroad.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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