Since Tropical Storm Agnes ended its working life abruptly in 1972, Union Dam has stood in the Patapsco River as a broken monument to a bygone industrial era, but it's also an obstacle to migrating fish, a swimming hazard and a potential threat to a large sewer pipe.
Its remaining time can now probably be measured in months. Fueled by federal stimulus money, efforts of state and federal officials and river advocates are expected to be realized in the coming weeks with a demolition crew rumbling into Patapsco Valley State Park on the Baltimore-Howard County line to begin dismantling the 209-foot-long concrete hulk.
The heavy equipment will land the first physical blows in what is expected to be a years-long effort to remove all four dams along the Patapsco's 32-mile length in the park, part of a national river restoration movement.
"It's a long, long time in coming," said Serena McClain, associate director of the river restoration program at American Rivers, the national organization that received $4 million in June from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for removing both Union and the Simkins Dam on the Patapsco. The Simkins removal is expected to begin next fall.
McClain said the Union Dam project has been talked about at least 10 years, or roughly since the demolition of the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River in Maine marked what is now considered a milestone in river restoration. That was the first dam demolished to benefit the environment, and as The New York Times wrote in an editorial this summer, "It certainly helped the Kennebec and its fish, and dams have been falling ever since."
The Patapsco project was among 50 chosen by NOAA from a stack of 814 coastal restoration proposals across the country under the federal economic stimulus program, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Agency spokeswoman Monica Allen said the winners were chosen on the basis of their potential to create jobs, improve the environment and start quickly.
The $1.5 million Union Dam project was "literally shovel ready," said Mary Andrews, NOAA's project site manager, as all the designs were completed and permits issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Once the work starts, the job on Union Dam is expected to take about six months.
