$3.6M removal of historic south Alabama dam could open new opportunities

This story is part of a partnership between the Montgomery Advertiser and the Living Democracy program at Auburn University. Now in its 13th year, the program disperses students across rural Alabama to spend 10 weeks learning more about the inner workings of the community and writing about what they observe.

ELBA ? Work will start in September on a collaborative, $3.6 million effort to remove a century-old dam in South Alabama to help endangered species, a project that could also open new opportunities for the area.

The dam four miles south of Elba on the Pea River, the oldest known concrete hydroelectric dam in existence in Alabama, was created to provide power to Troy and surrounding areas, which later lead to electrification of much of Central and South Alabama. The concrete dam was built between 1911 and 1914 by Charles Henderson, president of the Pea River Power Company, who commissioned the Tuscaloosa Concrete and Supply Company to construct the dam.

Decades later, a 2015 breach in the dam shut it down. Since then, safety and environmental concerns about the structure drew attention.

The solution arrived through a collaborative effort. The Nature Conservancy is set to buy the dam and begin removal starting Sept. 1, which will take three years to complete.

The project for the dam removal involves NOAA, U.S Fish and Wildlife Services, the Alabama Department of Conservation Natural Resources, the Nature Conservancy, Troy University, Restoration 154, and Dr. Bill Pine, professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida.

Pine specializes in species such as the Gulf Sturgeon that lives in the Gulf of Mexico and comes up the Choctawhatchee and Pea Rivers to spawn.  In 1991, Gulf sturgeon were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act after their population was greatly reduced with one factor being dam construction.

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NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jointly manage and protect Gulf sturgeon, which can grow to be 9 feet in length and weigh over 300 pounds.

Lisa Harris, executive Director of the Choctawhatchee, Pea, & Yellow Rivers Watershed Management Authority and organizer of the grants from NOAA and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, is overseeing the project.

She said grants for the project came to nearly $3.6 million to cover costs of land acquisition, permitting and actual removal of the structure.  Harris said, “We have the right people involved and the people who are very experienced in this so that it will be done in an environmentally friendly way.”

The dam removal will make the Pea River free flowing, which will be particularly beneficial to Gulf sturgeon and Alabama shad, which travel up the river from Gulf Coast areas to spawn.

After the project is complete, The Nature Conservancy will donate the property to an entity such as the city of Elba or the Coffee County Commission.

One question about the project remains. What will become of the power pumphouse near the dam? Some have safety and liability concerns, while others worry that removing the pumphouse will erase its historic significance.

Dr. Elijah Gaddis, Hollifield Associate Professor of Southern History at Auburn University, said he believes the powerhouse is a symbol of progress and modernization representing electrification of parts of Alabama.

“The reason to preserve these kinds of historic structures is because of how much they are tied to a place and a community’s identity,” Gaddis said. He acknowledges that there may be challenges and keeping the structure may or may not be possible.

Gaddis added, “Those are determinations that need to be made at the community level. As a historian of the South, it does strike me as a really interesting and significant structure.”

Some local leaders in Elba see the powerhouse as an opportunity for the community. Laurie Chapman, board member of nonprofit Restoration 154, said, “I think it could be a neat destination for anyone wanting to learn about the river or flood history.”

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Chapman suggested turning the power pumphouse into a learning center or museum could preserve the structure and create a destination for visitors. The Restoration 154 leader said she would like to raise money for this possible renovation through historic preservation grants. “I’d like to give it a shot before it is torn down.”

Chapman referenced a plan designed by an Auburn University Architecture student that depicts archways through the building to allow kayakers to travel through it.

Although there are many possibilities, Chapman said she believes the final decision will be determined by what local entity gets ownership of the pumphouse.

Elisha Oyola, a Living Democracy student at Auburn University, is living and learning this summer in Elba, Alabama, as a Jean O'Connor Snyder Intern with the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. The nonprofit program, coordinated by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, prepares undergraduate college students for civic life through living-learning experiences in the summer.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: $3.6M removal of historic Alabama dam could open new opportunities