State considers removing Patapsco River dam

Effort continues to restore fish populations, remove safety hazards

Fish making the spring spawning run from the Chesapeake Bay upstream into the Patapsco River swim about 11 miles of cool, shallow, flowing water before hitting a concrete wall nearly three stories high: the Bloede Dam. The wildlife obstacle and human safety hazard has stood for more than a century in Patapsco Valley State Park, but its days could be numbered.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is continuing a years-long effort to clear the Patapsco of dams that have outlived their original industrial uses and now turns its attention to Bloede. The dam is the largest of the Patapsco dams, and the most significant in terms of both wildlife and historical value.

"This one is the most important," said Jim Thompson, a DNR fisheries biologist, of the dam that straddles the Baltimore and Howard County line, 230 feet across and nearly 30 feet tall along the spillway. Because the Bloede Dam is the first obstacle that herring, shad and American eels hit as they head upriver, wildlife would benefit greatly if it were removed, he said.

"In my mind, it's huge," Thompson said of the potential impact of removing the dam, which is owned by the Department of Natural Resources. While there is a fish ladder next to the dam — a concrete, zig-zagging affair on the Howard County side — it's at best an imperfect solution. Studies have shown that relatively few fish make it up the ladder, installed in the early 1990s and the longest in Maryland at 316 feet.

Charles Wagandt, a vice president of Patapsco Valley Heritage, a group devoted to preserving the area's natural and historical features, called the Bloede "one of the most significant historical sites in the valley." The group has not yet taken a position on removing the dam, Wagandt said.

As the DNR begins deliberations about the dam, state officials are accepting public comments through its website, dnr.state.md.us, and at open houses scheduled at the Catonsville Public Library from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.

The state and its partners in the project — including the environmental organization American Rivers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — are considering four alternatives, two of which involve removing the dam.

Removing it is "the preferred option, but not the guaranteed option," said Gina Hunt, the DNR's deputy fisheries director. She emphasized that the agency is just beginning to analyze options, and there are complications — including environmental review and engineering details — that could stand in the way.

Since 2010, two dams upriver have been removed: first the Union, then Simkins, with a total cost in state and federal funds of about $2.7 million, Thompson said. That leaves the Daniels, the farthest upriver, and the Bloede, the largest of the four. The Bloede Dam would likely cost $1.5 million to $2 million to remove, Thompson said.

Hunt and Thompson said removal is the preferred option because it best fulfills the chief goals of the project: to increase the fish and eel populations and eliminate a human safety hazard. Thompson said four or five people have died at the dam in the past 20 years or so.

The rushing waters, wooded setting and historical interest make the Bloede Dam a magnet for park visitors, but not all heed the warning signs posted in English and Spanish: "Danger ... Area closed to public use ... Drownings have occurred."

People walk across the dam or make a game of sliding off into the river below, where they can get caught in the churning waters.

"People who don't realize the danger or don't care," said Serena McClain, American Rivers' director of river restoration.

She spoke above the roaring water on the Howard County side, where the fish ladder runs along the river, then turns inland, up the bank and over to the upstream side of the Bloede. It's an impressive-looking concrete structure, but it does a poor job of conveying fish and eels across the dam, she said.

"There's no way, with all that water flowing over the dam, a fish is going to find that entrance" to the fish ladder, McClain said. Water stretches about 160 feet across the spillway, and the fish ladder entrance is only a few feet wide.

A consultant's report prepared for American Rivers and released last week said up to 90 blueback herring and hickory shad were found in 15 minutes of sampling just below the dam in the spring of 2011. Above the dam, "none of these migratory species have yet been collected," the reports said,

American Rivers is devoted to restoring waterways across the country. McClain points to success stories in Maine, where she said dam removals in the past decade have helped to restore the herring population in the Kennebec River and bring back a commercial fishery.