It’s been almost three years since the rock ramp fishway opened at Lock and Dam No. 1 near East Arcadia. Plans called for similar projects at Lock and Dam No. 2 in Elizabethtown and Lock and Dam No. 3 near the Bladen/Cumberland County line.
However, a lack of money, higher priority projects and a change in some plans have brought the construction of the fishways to a standstill. The fishways allow migratory fish such as American shad and striped bass to return to their traditional spawning grounds that have been blocked by the dams since their construction about 100 years ago.
Today, the tide may be turning as support for the multi-million dollar projects is gaining support from local and state government agencies, and the Army Corps of Engineers in Wilmington. The recently enacted state budget allocated $250,000 toward the fishways. Admittedly, the state funding, which must be matched by outside funding, is a mere drop in the bucket in relation to the total cost for the projects, says Dawn York, who is on the board of Cape Fear River Watch and is part of the Cape Fear River Partnership group that has been working to get the fishways built, but it shows that interest is building.
“We’ve never felt as much support as we do now,” said York, who is president of the board of directors of Cape Fear River Watch. “It may be a year, it may be two years before we receive funding, but the support for the project has never been higher.”
The partnership has applied for grants and also is hopeful that funding may come from environmental pollution settlements with Kerr McGee and Duke Energy. The estimated cost for the Lock and Dam No. 2 project is $17 million.
“It’s a grassroots effort to ask for funding,” York said. “It’s becoming more and more apparent that other state and federal agencies see these projects as the highest priority in the Cape Fear River basin.”
If the partnership can receive grant funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), then work can begin on the engineering and design of a fishway for Lock and Dam No. 2, York says.
“That’s what we really need to do to get the exact amount of rock that’s needed,” York said.
It’s no small project. At Lock and Dam No. 1, about 100,000 cubic yards of rock was used in construction covering about three acres of river bottom, according to Cape Fear River Watch. The project included stabilization of a scour hole that was about 40 feet deep that had formed over the years from water going over the dam. Lock and Dam No. 2 has a 55 foot deep scour hole, York said.
Once funding is available, it’s estimated that it would take about three years for fishways to be constructed at Lock and Dams No. 2 and No. 3, according to a Cape Fear River Watch project summary.
With the success of the fishway construction project at Lock & Dam No. 1, the Cape Fear River Partnership was formed in 2011 with a mission to “restore and demonstrate the value of robust, productive, and self-sustaining stocks of migratory fish in the Cape Fear River,” according to the Cape Fear River Basin Action Plan for Migratory Fish document. The partnership is made of of government departments, for-profit businesses, non-profit groups and universities.
The fishway at Lock and Dam No. 1 is paying off as more migratory fish are being seen between No. 1 and No. 2, but it’s still a work in progress.
“Right now, the numbers for striped bass are so low that the Wildlife Resources Commission says there are no wild striped bass spawning in the Cape Fear River basin,” York said. “They are all aquaculture raised fish. That’s a pretty strong indicator that there’s something amiss.
“On the other hand, based on egg sampling, we are now seeing American shad spawning just below Lock and Dam No. 2. In 2007, a study done by N.C. State University, found that nothing was spawning above Lock and Dam No. 1. Now that we have the fish passage in place at Lock and Dam No. 1, we are seeing an exponential increase in American shad, not only being observed and fished for, but spawning. It’s a great thing. We know that it’s working. For the first time, a sturgeon was observed jumping out of the river just below Lock and Dam No. 2.”
York and her group plan to continue working toward construction of the fishways at Lock and Dams No. 2 and No. 3.
“It’s the highest conservation effort that needs to happen in the Cape Fear, to help restore access to historic migratory fish habitat in the Cape Fear River,” York said. “Basically, these levels of the population are so low that they are going to become extirpated from the Cape Fear River basin. We’re just not OK with that. This is a livlihood for fishermen and economic concerns, and also an ecosystem concern. Overall, we feel this is one of the biggest things that we can do to help support and protect migratory fish populations.”
To learn more about the project or the groups involved, visit:
Cape Fear River Watch: www.capefearriverwatch.org/
Cape Fear River Partnership: www.capefearriverwatch.org/about-us/the-cape-fear-river-partnership
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