Thomas MacMillan Photo
Alewife, aka herring.
A dam built in the 1770s, a relic from a bygone age of industry, lies behind a Walgreens on Whalley Avenue — but not for much longer.
The dam, which was built more than two centuries ago to power a textile mill, is slated to be taken apart this summer so that river herring will be free to swim upstream to spawn.
The dam-removal project got the go-ahead Wednesday evening from the City Plan Commission, which voted unanimously to allow the Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE) to begin work.
Gwen Macdonald and John Champion, both with CFE and Save the Sound, pitched the plan to the City Plan Commission Wednesday. Champion said the dam removal is part of larger environmental efforts focused on the West River, including the installation of self-regulating tide gates and a revamped Edgewood Park duck pond.
The dam is in bad shape, Champion said. Removing it will allow fish to swim upstream and “restore riverine conditions,” he said.
The project will remove about 100 feet of dam, currently owned by the New Haven Land Trust, said Macdonald.
The work will begin July , take a couple of months, and cost about $550,000, funded by grants, largely from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
River herring, or Alewives, which live in the sound, need to move to fresh water for certain parts of their life-cycle, Macdonald said. In 2001, a fish ladder (at left in photo) was installed to allow some fish to move upstream. River herring migrate from the spring until the end of June.
Removing the dam would allow more fish to make the passage up to Konolds Pond in Woodbridge, where they breed and spawn, Champion said. Juvenile Alewives then go back down to the sound, where they are a food source for striped bass and ospreys, Macdonald said.