GOLDSBORO -- Concrete came crumbling down today at the Cherry Hospital dam, as the state began removal of the dam that spans the Little River near Goldsboro. The dam removal, according to state and federal fisheries officials, will improve the spawning opportunities for fish that migrate up inland waters before returning to the ocean.
The small earthen - steel dam -- 135-feet wide and seven feet high -- is on the grounds of Cherry Hospital outside of Goldsboro. The state's Division of Water Resources (DWR) signed a $69,000 contract with R&W Construction Company of Jacksonville in April to remove the dam. The dam was built by the state about 50 years ago to impound water for use by nearby Cherry Hospital. A few years ago, the hospital began buying its water from the City of Goldsboro and the dam was no longer needed. Officials with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, several federal agencies and Cherry Hospital participated in a special ceremony at the dam site to commemorate the event.
Removal of the Cherry Hospital dam, according to DWR officials, will open 21 miles of the Little River and 33 miles of tributaries to the fish species that migrate from the ocean. Fish species that will benefit from the removal of the Cherry Hospital Dam are American shad, striped bass, short-nosed sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon, hickory shad and alewife.
The removal of the dam will mark the second time in six months a North Carolina dam has been marked for removal for environmental purposes. Carolina Power & Light Company (CP&L), owners of the Quaker Neck Dam on the Neuse River, voluntarily agreed to let the state dismantle the Quaker Neck Dam to improve fish migration patterns as far inland as Raleigh. The removal process, which began Dec. 18, 1997, has been delayed because of continuous high water levels on the Neuse River. The public-private partnership agreement opened almost 1,000 miles of additional spawning grounds to migrating fish. The highly publicized removal was hailed nationwide as the first voluntary removal of a dam in the country for strictly environmental reasons.
According to Mike Wicker of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, "the removal of the Cherry Hospital dam, although not as major as removal of the Quaker Neck Dam, is another step to improve the migration abilities of fish that come inland to spawn."
Wicker said that initial inventories of fish catches along the Neuse River since the Quaker Neck Dam began coming down "are very encouraging indeed . . . it appears the spawning fish have already traveled up the Neuse River, even its upper tributaries. That can only be good news for the commercial and recreational fishermen from the ocean inlets to Raleigh."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, and Coastal America Inc. have helped fund the removal of both dams. In 1989, the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine Study pinpointed the Quaker Neck Dam and the Cherry Hospital Dam as dams that could be removed to help fish migration.
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