It has been nearly 8 years in the “unmaking” as Agust Gudmundsson, past state council chair, would tell you, and now finally the day has come. On Tuesday March 11th at approximately 8 am, a track hoe driven by a skilled operator entered the Musconetcong River to begin notching the dam ahead of a summer 2008 removal. In short order, the dam’s flume or sluiceway as some call it was fully breached, allowing the river to flow more freely in an effort to de-water the pond formed by the dam upstream. It is hoped that this initial breach will significantly lower the pond in the coming days and weeks, flushing at least some of the sediment that has built up since Colonial days at this long shuttered grist mill site.
State regulations prohibit work in the river from March 15 - June 15 for the primary trout fishing season, so it was decided that it was best to notch the dam significantly ahead of the summer removal and subsequent restoration efforts for this, the first of many dams to be removed on the “Musky”. Site of TU’s newly announced Home Rivers Initiative, a first for the state of New Jersey, the Musky may someday once again flow freely. This dam has been under the ownership of the Cornell family, proprietors of the Pump House Restaurant along the banks of the river just below the dam. The Cornells have patiently waited almost 8 years for this day, having had the vision to see their section of this beautiful river free flow ing once again.
Attending the event on Tuesday were many of the partners who have come together to see this dam and many others get removed in coming months and years. Amongst them were the Musconetcong Watershed Association, who took lead on this removal, Trout Unlimited volunteers as well as the newly hired Musconetcong Home Rivers Project Coordinator, NJTU’s own Brian Cowden. In addition, members of the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service which is an arm of the USDA) were in attendance. The NRCS is a critical federal agency working closely with the North Jersey Resource & Development Council (NJRC&D) and with the various partners to bring much needed funding to the numerous restoration efforts underway on the Musky and throughout its watershed.
After the June 15th date arrives and the water levels cooperate, the full removal of the Gruendyke Mill Dam will be completed as will the removal of a smaller dam, the Seber Dam, a short distance upstream. Stone weirs will be built at the current dam site along with a second built a few hundred yards upstream to restore the river’s natural drop in elevation and to provide additional fish habitat in what is currently a lifeless pond, largely devoid of trout and other native fish and aquatic species. Riparian plantings will follow this dam removal and weir building, eliminating the exotic non-native plants that have invasively taken over in the silted-in pond and restoring the upstream ecosystem. In the short time it took to notch the Grunedyke dam, water levels in the upstream pond dropped about 18 inches.
