By Kathryn Young
Since 2006, removal of the Jordan’s Point Dam has been a topic of conversation in the Lexington area. Because of the City Council’s vote on June 15, the dam’s removal could come as early as October 2018.
The City Council voted 3-0 in favor of dam removal, as one member was absent on the day of the vote, two members had to recuse themselves, and the mayor does not vote.
Lexington City Manager Noah Simon noted that significant structural issues and expensive maintenance were among reasons for removal.
Other reasons for removal, according to a presentation given in June by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, include elimination of a public-safety and drowning hazard, restoration of river function, improvement of boating access, elimination of mandatory portage, and restoration of fish passage.
In 2006, 16-year-old Charles Volpe was out for a swim in the Maury River when he was swept over the spillway and drowned in the waters below the dam. Residents called for removal at the time, but those calls were not answered until ten years later.
One year after Volpe’s death, a private firm for the city of Lexington, conducted an inspection of the dam. The Dam Inspection Report showed numerous cracks, seeps, and voids, and indicated that several sections of the dam have shifted slightly downstream. The report showed that the dam was unsafe, and it is both at risk for failure and a drowning hazard.
According to a June 1 letter from Louise Finger, a Stream Restoration Biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the “typical lifespans for mill dams constructed in the early 1900’s is 80-100 years, so the Jordan’s Point dam has already exceeded its expected lifespan.”
The preliminary cost for dam removal is approximately $300,000, including $30,000 for pre-project studies, $180,000 for construction, and $90,000 for design, permits, management, and construction oversight, according to a May 18, 2017 letter from Paul E. Bugas, Jr., Aquatics Manager for Region 4 the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Regarding the 2007 dam report, repairs to the dam would cost between $2.5 and $3 million dollars. Repairing the dam would include, at minimum, grouting the voids, encasing the downstream face of the dam in concrete, installing anchors through the dam into the riverbed below, and pouring a new reinforced concrete cap on the dam, according to the Dam Inspection Report.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is seeking grant money from a variety of private and federal sources for dam removal. However, funding has not yet been committed, according to Finger.
The dam is 185 feet long and 10 feet tall. It was originally used to power a milling operation, but the structure is no longer used. Removal of the dam would involve removing the dam structure, removing the piers below the dam, and filling and grading the scour area below the dam.
The dam was deeded to the City of Lexington in December of 1940 by the Virginia Public Service Company.
Meetings about the dam were open to members of both the Lexington and Rockbridge County communities. Although the city plans to go forward with plans to remove the Jordan’s Point Dam, not everyone in the area supports the plan.
“It’s a real split between support and opposition” for dam removal, said Finger.