The owners of a century-old dam on the South River say the deteriorating structure is a dangerous liability that must be removed, but their latest proposal to demolish it has met with impassioned opposition.
During the past five years, the board of directors of the Ram Works Homeowners Association has debated whether to repair or remove the Rife-Loth Dam, built in its current form in 1907. The dam holds back the South River where it flows along Rife Road, just upstream from the Waynesboro YMCA.
Board President Chester Campbell said the panel recently decided — but has not formally voted — to remove the dam. He said the dam is a drowning and injury danger that escalates insurance costs and that rehabilitation, at a cost of $150,000 to $250,000, is at least three times as expensive as removal.
Repairs would not qualify for government grant money or be supported by environmental agencies, Campbell said.
“I exhausted any possibility that I thought we have of finding funding to restore the dam,” said Campbell, 83. “There’s nobody — no one — that hates to see that dam go worse than I do.”
Campbell’s estimate of his emotional attachment to the dam, like almost every piece of the proposal to remove it, has been contested this month, and for years. Some who live among the 72 units at Ram Works oppose removing the dam because they say it adds historic value and character, makes the property attractive for renting and selling, and for the tranquility provided by the ever-present sound of falling water.
“It’s the first thing I see every day and … the last thing I see at night,” said Leslie Tomey, who chose her condo 25 years ago because it overlooks the dam.
“I pray every night that someone would come along and create a miracle for that dam … but I don’t know, I haven’t heard of one yet,” she said.
Because taking out the dam would change the flow and depth of water upstream, toward Ridgeview Park, a contingent of neighbors who are not part of Ram Works are also upset. They’ve distributed pamphlets and collected dozens of signatures on a petition this month.
Within Ram Works, Tomey listed a dozen residents who want the dam to stay. Some agreed, but asked not to be named. Some support the board.
Campbell said many who learned about the removal reasons have agreed it should go. Others missed information sessions.
One person who missed the sessions is Myra Willingham, a resident of five years. She opposes the dam removal, but spoke on behalf of board members and their difficult job.
“The people in charge are doing a good job in tough circumstances … with 70 people screaming at them,” she said. “Every issue … it seemed there were enough different opinions it was always a big to-do.”
Deterioration
The Ram Works board was first approached about the dam more than five years ago.
Urbie Nash, a member of Trout Unlimited and chairman of Waynesboro’s Stormwater and Flood Commission, said he has been working ever since, independent of his professional associations, to convince Ram Works that river health and fishing conditions would improve without the dam.
Campbell said he ended his first meeting with Nash by declaring the dam would come out “over my dead body.” And he described a “love affair” with the dam, above which he has lived and worked for decades.
“I’d raise the window and let the water rolling over the dam lull me to sleep,” he said.
But the men get along so well now that they finish each other’s sentences.
Campbell said improved fishing pales in comparison to other reasons to remove the dam.
The first is cost.
Campbell said mortar breaks with each flooding and the dam could crumble in five years.
A state wildlife expert who oversees dam removals agreed.
“Safety-wise, that dam has eroded considerably in a couple years,” said Larry Mohn, regional fisheries manager for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Campbell said contractors estimate rehab costs up to $250,000.
Removal would cost between $40,000 and $80,000, and be eligible for federal grants. Mohn said government agencies have been encouraging demolition of dams that no longer perform work for which they were constructed.
Dave Segars, a Waynesboro civil and structural engineer who frequently takes his kayak to the Rife-Loth Dam to study it, estimated the structure would not collapse as Campbell said.
“Nature can do amazing things, but I don’t think it’s going to bring that dam down in five years,” he said.
But Segars supports removal.
“It is better for the stream ecologically,” he said. “[And] without a doubt it is a threat to people.”
Ram Works members must also think about a retaining wall, perpendicular to the dam, which needs repairs. Fixing parts of that wall a decade ago cost more than $80,000, Campbell said.
Nash, Campbell and Mohn said grant money could remove the dam, put some of its materials toward retaining wall repairs, and help removal of another small downstream dam.
The Ram Works board also worries about the safety of those who trespass to play on the dam.
Nash said he warned of drowning danger years ago, and pointed to incidents at Virginia dams similar to Rife-Loth as evidence. Newspaper reports detailed three drownings at the century-old Riverton Dam in Front Royal, which Mohn saw removed last year for $130,000.
He said there was opposition.
“It took me seven years and it came out a month or two after a 9-year-old drowned,” he said.
In 2006, a teen boy died after being carried over a dam in the Maury River in Lexington. A lawsuit is pending.
Danville’s city council recently approved an $80,000 removal of the Brantley Dam, which has claimed four lives since 1965, and most recently a 5-year-old in April 2010.
Mohn said the Rife-Loth is taller than Riverton, but has less intense water flow than the others.
Campbell said he chases children off the dam every week.
“We have signs up there that say keep off, but they ignore them,” he said.
Campbell said 13 insurance companies passed on insuring Ram Works about three years ago, and that the association’s insurance costs increased.
Residents said insuring the dam costs just $20 per year per unit, but Campbell said overall liability is more, and the association risks an injury lawsuit.
River impact
Campbell called the dam’s removal a “business decision” that has side benefits of improved trout fishing, creation of a major tourist attraction, white water kayaking possibilities, improved water quality and fewer mosquitoes.
Based on previous demolitions, Mohn expects free-flowing, colder water that is not as deep as the dam creates.
Those conditions will improve life for trout, which struggle downstream from the dam, in part because the dam’s pool warms the water.
Mohn and Nash were pivotal players in a years-long effort to bring trout fishing to the South River in the Lyndhurst area, where fishermen cast their flies for the first time on Jan. 1.
One analysis estimated $500,000 in annual economic activity in the area generated by the 4-mile fishery there. Without the Rife-Loth Dam, river conditions could improve to make for a 12-mile South River fishery, Nash said.
Fish that prefer pool-like water would likely exit, Mohn said.
Removal proponents also want to secure funds for other river restoration projects and to handle potential upstream changes.
Mohn has not, however, needed to take such action on other removals.
He said flooding would likely be reduced, or go unchanged.
Funding question
Mohn has begun to talk with the state and federal agencies that would handle permitting and funding for removal.
Waynesboro’s government is not one of those groups, and does not bear responsibility, said City Manager Mike Hamp.
“I have heard the various positions … about the benefits [Trout Unlimited] anticipates if the dam were removed,” he said, declining to advocate either way on the dam’s future.
With funds in hand, the dam could be removed in two months, Mohn said.
He has been in touch with the Virginia Marine Resource Commission. The Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers would be involved as well.
A mercury damage assessment for the South River is also ongoing, which could lead to funding for restoration projects, among which the Rife-Loth Dam has been listed, state and federal officials said.
Campbell said the Ram Works board is waiting for more information before voting.
In the meantime, opponents within Ram Works continue to worry about the dam’s demise.
“One of the big things those condos have going … is the ambiance that the river offers, whether you can see it from your window or hear the dam … it’s the only place you can get that in town,” Willingham said.
“[Waynesboro has] a habit of not maintaining anything historic,” Tomey said from her porch.
Flipping through her digital camera, she showed photos of the dam from every season. In one, she framed a red amaryllis flower on her windowsill. In the background, out the window, water flows over the dam.
“People come to my house and walk out on this deck and gasp,” she said. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”
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