Dam Removals In Vermont Accelerate In The Age Of Climate Change

The old dam in West Rutland, Vermont before
demolition began this summer. The dam
was removed to improve stream ecology
and prevent flood damage. Old dams
in Vermont are coming under more 
and more scrutiny in the age of 
climate-change driven floods. 

 Back in high school, I briefly had the worst job I ever had.

There was a town reservoir in West Rutland, Vermont that was a municipal water supply. The reservoir was temporarily drained, and we had to muck out the algae and mud left behind to ensure future water quality. 

YUCK!

The town no longer uses that water supply. And I have to say West Rutland now has some of the best tasting tap water of any town I've tried. 

But the dam was still there. Or was. Work began earlier this summer to tear it down. Part of the reason is climate change, of course! 

The dam was growing more and more unsafe due to its age and the increasing severity of rain storms created in large part by that climate change. 

 As WPTZ reports:

"Officials said because of the dam's outdated infrastructure and old age, parts are breaking off during storms and changing the direction of the river. West Rutland Town Planner Mary Ann Roulette said the dam has caused major disruptions over the years. She revealed there as minor damage affecting nearby property this past July."

Karina Dailey, a restoration ecologist and chair of Vermont's dam task force said the West Rutland deconstructions  is one of several dam removal projects. Others are getting going in Newport, Ripton, Berkshire and Winooski. 

DAM SCRUTINY

Communities statewide are discussing removing dams, perhaps hundreds of them. Usually in the name of river health, and the fact removing these small dams can minimize flooding in climate-driven storms. 

 "The best resilience is to let these rivers function naturally," Dailey said. 

Sure, we're having a drought now, but it's only a matter of time before we start running into those super charged rainstorms again. 

It's interesting this is going on now as some Vermont dams were built almost a century ago after the cataclysmic Great Flood of 1927.  

Large flood control dams like Wrightsville, Waterbury and East Barre were built after that flood. Montpelier suffered extensive damage in the July, 2023 flood, but the Wrightsville Dam helped prevent the water from being even deeper. But that dam was almost overtopped in 2023, and that would have caused an even more cataclysmic inundation.

Still, those large dams did their jobs in 2023 and 2024 and did protect some property. It's the small dams that are causing problems. 

In the 2023 floods, five Vermont dams failed and 60 were overtopped. That event has put new urgency into efforts to remove old dams. 

As Vermont Public reported in a separate article, Vermont has more than 1,000 dams around the state. Many are overdue for repairs or are old and becoming dangerous. As those climate induced storms intensify, those dams become more unstable, and can collapse under heavy rains, worsening damage. 

Even if these old, unstable dams don't collapse during floods, they can create damage in heavy rain storms. 

"Dams not created specifically for flood protection are regularly full and do not provide storage capacity. And they frequently direct water outside the main channel at high velocities which causes bank erosion and impacts to communities,"  said Andrew Fisk, the northeast regional director for the environmental advocacy group American Rivers.

Which is precisely why that dam in West Rutland was removed, and many other dams in Vermont are on their way out. Or, dams like ones recently removed in Dover, and another in Ripton were taken out for ecological reasons. But those removals had the happy side effect of minimizing damage from future floods.

MONTPELIER

Flood-prone Montpelier is looking at removing old dams and has already started on one. 

The Pioneer Street Dam is about 1.3 miles upstream from downtown Montpelier. It's cracked, could collapse in a flood, and could redirect water toward homes and businesses even if it doesn't get smashed down in a future flood. 

Also this summer, right near the Pioneer Street Dam, deconstruction work started on a 19th century home that was on property that once belonged to Jacob Davis, the founding settler in Montpelier was deconstructed.

The property located at 5 Home Farm Way, about two miles upstream from Montpelier consists of a high style Greek Revival house with an attached barn and 19 acres of agricultural land. 

Bricks and planks from the home are being resold for new construction elsewhere. Removing the home and barns opens up new floodplain space, allowing water to spread out over fields before reaching Montpelier during torrential storms. 

Vermont usually tries to preserve historic buildings, but sometimes, there's a greater good that overrides that. "The highest and best use of a floodplain is to serve as a floodplain, said Ben Doyle, president of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, reports Vermont Public. 

Between the removal of the Pioneer Street Dam and the old house, the Winooski River will have more opportunity to spread out into floodplains during big storms before some of that water could reach downtown Montpelier. 

There are three other old mill dams upstream of Montpelier that should be removed, advocates said. They no longer serve the purpose they once did a century ago. They don't even hold back water. The space behind the dams are filled with silt. 

Time for them to go. 

50 Years Ago Agnes Set Benchmark For Worst Eastern U.S. Flood On Record

Elmira, New York during Tropical Storm 
Agnes flooding, June, 1972

At this point 50 years ago today, the Middle Atlantic States were just beginning to pick up the pieces of what was easily among the worst floods the region had ever experienced.  

The culprit was ex-Hurricane Agnes, an early season tropical system that seemed like not that big a deal until it got halfway up the U.S. East Coast.

Agnes dumped up to two feet of rain on eastern Pennsylvania. The storm killed 128 people - 48 in Pennsylvania alone.  More than 115,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, and more than 360,000 people were forced to evacuate.

It was at the time the most expensive tropical storm in U.S. history.  That record would stand for more than a decade.

Tropical Storm Agnes was more proof that a hurricane need not be strong to unleash havoc. And, former hurricanes can stir up major trouble long after the winds associated with them have died down.   

The spring of 1972 had been wet in the Middle Atlantic region.  That primed the pump for what would happen next. 

Hurricane Agnes splashed ashore as barely a hurricane on June 19,1972.  It caused the usual damage from storm surges, and spun off a couple dozen tornadoes that damaged at least 2,000 structures.

As tropical systems do after landfall, Agnes weakened quickly and the worst seemed over. However, the stage was being set. A cold front over the Great Lakes pulled in some moisture from Agnes, prompting more heavy rains ahead of the main show. That was enough to completely saturate the ground ahead of the main show.   

Which was a bit of a surprise. 

When tropical storms moves off the Southeast Coast, especially early in the hurricane season, they usually continue on to the northeast, out to sea, no longer being a bother to anybody.  Agnes, though, got pulled northwestward by a trough of low pressure pushing southeastward from the southern Great Lakes through Ohio and into Virginia.   

Then, there was nothing coming in from the west to push the remnants of Agnes out. It sat and spun pretty much over Pennsylvania and southwestern New York and just rained itself out. 

With such a wide area receiving 8 to 15 inches of rain, with, as noted, amounts up to two feet, rivers went on a rampage. 

Ground zero was the Susquehanna River, especially around the State Capitol of Harrisburg and the city of Wilkes-Barre. The river crested at 32.8 feet, a full 15 feet above flood state. Of that $3.1 billion in damage from Agnes, $2 billion of that was in the Susquehanna River basin. 

The areas around Corning and Elmira, New York were just as hard hit.  

That water was unbelievable. At the time, I remember news footage of people shoveling mud left behind from flood waters out of second floor windows. 

Flood control efforts since Agnes has spared much of the region from similar or worse storms than that 1972 deluge. Flood walls were raised substantially along the Susquehanna River.  

As the Washington Post notes, Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 caused a crest along that river at Wilkes-Barre even higher than that of Agnes. But flood walls installed after Agnes spared that city and Harrisburg from too much damage.

Other towns aren't so lucky. In the age of climate change, deluges like that from Agnes become more likely. 

Ellicott City, Maryland was devastated by Tropical Storm Agnes floods in 1972.  Turns out that was just a preview of what was to come a few decades later. Six big floods followed in Ellicott City after 1972, including two even stronger inundations in 2016 and 2018. (Just on Wednesday, Ellicott City narrowly escaped another big flood).  

I also recall at the time that Agnes gave Vermont a good scare. Many forecasts had it moving further north and east, putting the Green Mountain State in a huge flood danger But, as we know now, Agnes set its sights on Pennsylvania, southwestern New York and other states in that region.

Since it had been quite a wet month in the Green Mountain State, we were lucky that the rains from Agnes weren't that bad. We only had a few tropical showers in Vermont from Agnes.  Rutland  and Burlingtom ended up picking up about an inch of rain over three days from Agnes. Woodstock got about 1.5 inches of rain.

Vermont's turn for severe flooding would come just a year later. On June 30, 1973, after a wet month, up to 7.5 inches of rain poured down on central and southern parts of the state, causing one of the worst floods in history. 

Record or near record flood crests hit the Black, Ottaquechee, White and Ompmpanoosac rivers. Total flood damage in 1973's Vermont flood was $64 million or $421 million in 2022 dollars.  

Videos

This video is pretty cheesy, but still gives you a glimpse of how bad Agnes got in Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley.  Click on this link if you don't see the video image on your device:

Some good still pictures in this vide of the flooding from Agnes in Pennsylvania. Click on this link to view, or see below: 

Super 8 mm footage of the flood and aftermath of the Agnes flood around Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Notice the mud lines up to the eaves of single floor houses in some neighborhoods. Click on this link or view below: