Kickemuit dam removal in Warren gets key approval, neighbors object

WARREN – A plan to restore the Kickemuit River to its natural state has taken a key step forward with the approval of an application to remove a concrete dam that was built across the waterway nearly 140 years ago.

The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council on Tuesday granted a request from the Bristol County Water Authority to take down the Lower Kickemuit Dam, which is located near Child Street and serves as a dividing line between the fresh- and saltwater portions of the eight-mile-long river that runs from headwaters in Rehoboth to Mount Hope Bay in Bristol.

The water authority’s proposal to demolish the Upper Kickemuit Dam, a newer earthen embankment less than a mile upstream, is still pending before the state Department of Environmental Management.

Environmentalists in favor, but neighbors object

The dams were built to create reservoirs that were integral to the drinking water system for Barrington, Bristol and Warren. But with the water authority buying supplies from the Scituate Reservoir and now working on a backup connection through East Providence, the reservoirs no longer serve any useful function for the county’s water system and have fallen into disrepair.

Their removal has the support of Save The Bay, which has advised the authority on the project, and the DEM's Division of Fish and Wildlife. The Kickemuit River Council is also in favor of removing the dams and restoring the natural tidal flow along the full extent of the river. The groups say ecologically valuable salt marshes will be created, that river herring will be able to reach spawning habitat more easily, that access for kayakers and fishermen will be improved, and that the work will help with flood resiliency.

“We believe the dam removal project will restore the Kickemuit River to its original state and help in the migration of native species back to our waters,” wrote David Durban, of the river council, in a letter to the coastal council.

But neighbors have objected to the plan, saying it could harm property values and cause saltwater contamination of their wells. They say the water authority was irresponsible in failing to maintain the dams and should make repairs rather than tear them down.

“Now the risk, because they didn’t do what they were supposed to do under Rhode Island law, is being passed to the community,” Robert Botelho, a resident of Serpentine Road, told the council at Tuesday night’s meeting.

He called on the authority to install a new water main to ensure his house and others aren’t harmed if the underground aquifer is tainted as saltwater starts mixing with freshwater in the reopened portions of the river.

Despite the concerns raised by Botelho – the only objector to testify at the meeting – the council approved the water authority’s application. But as part of their decision, council members instructed the authority to test wells for salinity before and after the lower dam is removed. Authority executive director Steve Coutu also told the council that the water main installation would be assessed for cost and feasibility.

He said after the meeting that the studies conducted by engineers hired by the authority concluded that the wells won’t be impacted. At this point, there’s no plan to preemptively run a new water line under Serpentine Road.

“They’re deep wells and we don’t anticipate any issues,” Coutu said.

Dams in disrepair, no longer needed

The 250-foot-wide lower dam was built in 1883 to store drinking water for the residents of Warren, Bristol, and later, Barrington. The upper dam and the reservoir above it followed in 1961, coming after Hurricane Carol in 1954 contaminated the lower reservoir with saltwater.

But the reservoirs largely became redundant in 1998 when the water authority completed a pipeline under the Providence River and became a wholesale customer of Providence Water, which gets its water from the Scituate Reservoir. The Kickemuit reservoirs were maintained as a backup supply, but they’re no longer needed with a plan underway to hook into the Pawtucket Water Supply Board’s system.

With maintenance costs mounting and no use for the dams anymore, it made no sense for the authority to pay to repair them, said Coutu.

The same goes for the circa-1908 treatment plant that the authority owns near the lower dam. It was decommissioned in 2019 and is planned for demolition.

Climate change is one factor in the authority’s decisions. The infrastructure along the Kickemuit is seen as vulnerable to extreme storms and surges, which are reaching higher with sea level rise. By taking out the structures, the authority would open up more areas to hold floodwater.

Engineering studies project that removing the two dams would reduce the frequency of flooding above the lower dam. While flooding could go up slightly in places in some scenarios, it would go down during a 100-year storm, the baseline event used to measure flood risk.

Staff at the coastal council raised no concerns about the plan for the lower dam and recommended approval.

Grants to pay for removal

Grants from the state and federal government totaling $2.6 million are expected to cover the entire cost of removing both dams, said Coutu.

The authority is awaiting word from the DEM on the upper dam. The state agency is also assessing water quality impacts stemming from the removal of both dams. And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must also sign off on both projects.

The DEM is expected to wrap up its reviews within the next month or so, according to spokesman Michael Healey. Staff at the agency support the project because they believe it will reduce stagnant conditions in the reservoirs and "significantly improve both water quality and habitat for a wide variety of fish and wildlife," he said.

"At the same time, though, we cannot prejudge a permit," he said. "A project must still meet environmental standards."

If all goes well, the project could go out to bid this winter and demol could start this time next year.

“It’s a good milestone for us,” Coutu said of Tuesday’s decision.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Dam removal in Warren RI gets key approval