This weekend will be the last time people will have a chance to view the Carpentersville dam before work begins next week to remove it from the Fox River.
The Forest Preserve District of Kane County celebrated the pending deconstruction Wednesday with a “ribbon-tying” event, a term used to represent the symbolic return of the river to its natural state.
A project nearly a decade in the making, demolition work will require the district to close the trail near the dam Friday and its parking lot Monday. The river’s west bank will serve as the staging area for construction equipment and the silt dredged from the river, according to Jennifer Rooks-Lopez, the district’s director of planning and land rotection.
Rooks-Lopez was one of the featured speakers at the Wednesday event, which also included county officials and members of Friends of the Fox River, a longtime advocate for dam removal.
“Our motto has been that together we can free the Fox. That’s what we’re doing here,” said Friends President Gary Swick, who led some in attendance in chanting “free the Fox.”
The original incarnation of the Carpentersville dam was built in 1837 to provide electrical and mechanical power to residents and businesses and as a means of harvesting ice from the river, Swick said. Those uses ceased being needed about 80 years ago, and his group believes restoring the river to its natural state will improve the waterway’s health, he said.
Forest Preserve District Executive Director Benjamin Haberthur concurred, saying that removing the barrier
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should increase in the amount of wildlife found in and around the river, including the mussels, which were once common. The river’s natural water flow will flush-out sediment, reduce conditions that produce algae and other bacteria, and decrease water temperature, he said.
Kayakers and canoers will be able to travel the river from Algonquin to Elgin without having to portage — a distance of about 10½ miles — Haberthur said.
The Carpentersville dam is the only one on the Fox owned by the forest preserve district. Nine others, including those in Elgin, South Elgin, Aurora and St. Charles, are recommended for removal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but the issue remains under study and the final decision on each will be made by the municipalities in which they are located.
“They need to decide what’s right for them,” Habethur said.
Removal of the Carpentersville dam is being funded by Corps of Engineers and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Rooks-Lopez said it’s expected the demolition cost will be about $1.4 million, with $312,935 already spent on preliminary design, planning and engineering in advance of the work.
Demolition work in the water is scheduled to begin Sept. 16, and officials are planning to document the process with photos and video to be posted on the district’s website and social media outlets, Rooks-Lopez said.
The process will involve creating a causeway in front of the dam and then methodically notching the structure to gradually release the water above the dam to below it, she said.
According to a chart on display at the gathering, once that initial work is done, the dam will be demolished and removed and sediment removed from the river and hauled away. The causeway will be removed after that, followed by cleanup and repairs to the parking lot and trail.
If all goes as planned, the project should be complete by the end of November, Rooks-Lopez said.
The river will narrow a bit upstream from the dam, she said, but people most likely won’t notice a difference downstream.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what the river looks like when it’s done,” said Kane County Board member Jarett Sanchez, D-Carpentersville, who is also a forest preserve district commissioner.
Sanchez arrived at the ribbon-tying event via kayak, launching at the Fox River Shores Forest Preserve and landing at Williams Road in Carpentersville.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
