Demolition time for dam on Tye River

TYE RIVER - The late Elizabeth “Bess” Quinn of Charlottesville used to joke about having to pay her “dam taxes” to Nelson County.

Now after three years of planning, her surviving family members won’t have to worry about that.

Last week, a century-old dam, which crossed the Tye River near U.S. 29 on the Amherst-Nelson border, was demolished. Tearing it down fulfilled one of Quinn’s final requests.

“I’m sorry to say we didn’t get the project finished before she died,” said Jason Halbert, the project’s volunteer coordinator. “Her children own the dam, and have followed through on her wish.”

“I’m certain that somewhere Bess is smiling today,” Rebecca Quinn, daughter of the late Bess Quinn, said in a prepared statement.

It was Halbert who recalled Quinn’s standing joke about taxes on the dam. He was contacted by Quinn in 2004 after she heard about a similar project he was working on to remove the Woolen Mills dam in Albemarle County.

Halbert said she told him she wanted to help restore the Tye River, and give fish the freedom to swim upstream to their native habitats.

Quinn also felt the dam was no longer safe, he said.

Built sometime around the turn of the 20th century, the 225-foot-long dam was made of river cobble and concrete. It was constructed to operate a nearby mill.

Steam trains used to stop and refill their water tanks from the mill pond behind the dam, according to Ben Barber, the landowner on the Amherst side of the river.

In the 1950’s, Quinn inherited the dam from her father, William Knight Smiley of Lynchburg.

The dam, 6-feet high and 4-feet thick in some areas, was damaged in 1969 by Hurricane Camille, the storm that left its mark on so much of Nelson.

The mill it was constructed to serve is no longer extant, so the dam no longer serves its intended purpose.

“The dam is causing serious erosion to the south bank, and this project will stop that and restore the natural river channel,” Halbert said.

Workers from Atkins Excavating Inc. of Greenville toiled in 100-degree weather for last wee to break apart the dam.

Once the debris is removed, Conservation Services LLC of Verona will complete the work of reseeding and restoring the river banks.

Alan Weaver, fish passage coordinator for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, was also on site to conduct a before-and-after fish population monitoring project to document the effects of dam removal.

Removing the dam would not only stop erosion of the banks, but also allow populations of migratory fish access to more of the Tye River, according to Weaver.

“In this particular case, probably the most benefit to migratory fish would be the American eel,” Weaver said. “They go out to the ocean to spawn, and then they come back in as juveniles. So with the dam gone, it will be a lot easier for them to get upstream to their adult habitat.”

The Tye River is home to dozens of species of fish and other aquatic life. In addition to American eel, those include small and largemouth bass, and native mussels.

Fish won’t be the only species that stand to benefit.

“It will also allow for increased access for anglers, paddlers and boaters,” Weaver said.

According to Halbert, the project cost comes to $40,000.

“That is low for a project like this,” he said. “I am the only volunteer, but the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has donated a lot of staff time and expertise to this project.”

Other factors he cited as contributing to keeping costs low included the ease of getting to the dam, the lack of opposition to its removal and the lack of any requirement to conduct major studies or reports.

Finally, Halbert said, “The contractor is good at this type of work.”

The project is being funded by American Rivers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, along with help from the Virginia Organizing Project in Charlottesville.

For Barber, the removal of the dam is bittersweet.

“We kind of liked the dam there,” Barber said. “But it’s progress.

“Things have got to come down to make things better sometimes.”