The former Seber Grove Dam on the Musconetcong is the second dam removal project by the TU’s Musconetcong Home River Initiative, the NJ state council and vaious chapters, and our partners at the Musconetcong Watershed Association, leaders on this project. The dam was notched several weeks ago to partially de-water the upstream pond for survey work required as a condition of the removal permit. TU, working with our partners, will continue to monitor this dam’s removal from pre-removal to full removal to yearly surveys for at least the next 5 years. Lessons learned with this removal will be helpful as removing obsoloete dams in NJ is still in its infancy. Here are some pix of the work done on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 19 and 20, 2009. Work will continue until at least through Monday, Tuesday if we need it.
Here’s day 1 hammering of the concrete in the morning in the fog…
Below left is the far bank in need of restoration. Below right is the river looking upstream after day 1’s work.
Below is the completed far bank restoration. That bank will receive additional armoring on Monday the 23rd. Native trees and shrubs will be planted by TU volunteers in the springtime.
Stopped by Saturday to see the effects of the 2 days of work to find that the river had been busy in our absence. Note the newly formed channel sweeping out sediment collected behind the dam over the years. The last shot is a close up of that river section. More pix next week – stop back and see our finished product, minus the plantings.
