Discharge and Suspended Sediment Transport during Deconstruction of a Low-Head Dam
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 5
Abstract
In March of 2003, the wide, high St. Johns Dam (Sandusky River, Ohio) was breached to lower the water level in the reservoir. In November of the same year, the dam was removed in an effort to restore aquatic habitat and connectivity in the river. During both the breach and the dam removal, high resolution time series of discharge and suspended sediment concentrations were monitored downstream of the dam. Discharge and suspended sediment during the breach were not discernible from background values. In contrast, the dam removal resulted in a peak suspended sediment concentration of and a peak discharge of , which returned to background levels of and , respectively, approximately after the removal. The floodwave during the removal attenuated by 50% at the City of Fremont, downstream, illustrating the diffusive nature of the channel and the limited risk of flooding downstream. Levels of suspended sediment and discharge during the removal were comparable to subsequent discharge events. Spatial distributions of turbidity in and upstream of the dam pool and archived turbidity data from the City of Tiffin, downstream of the dam, suggest that sediments stored in the impoundment did not statistically enhance turbidity up to 2 years after the removal. Generally, the removal had a minor impact on water quality and posed no risk to public safety or to downstream aquatic habitats.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers thank Bob Vargo and Bob Gable (Scenic Rivers Program, Ohio DNR) for asking us to participate in their 5-year study of dam removal and river restoration. Special thanks to Ryan Murphy (Geologic Survey, Ohio DNR) for help deploying instruments, to Michael Perriguey (American Water Co.) for supplying archived turbidity data, and to Mike Eberline and Greg Koltun (USGS) for flow data. The writers also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Grant No. 671.UNSPECIFIED
References
American Rivers. (2005). “Dam removal toolkit.” ⟨www.americanrivers.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AMR_content_8cf8⟩ (Aug. 24, 2005).
American Rivers, The Friend of the Earth, and Trout Unlimited. (1999). Dam removal success stories: Restoring rivers through selective removal of dams that don’t make sense, E. Maclin and M. Sicchio, eds., American Rivers, Washington, D.C., 1–114.
American Rivers and Trout Unlimited. (2002). Exploring dam removal, M. Bowman, S. Higgs, El Maclin, S. McClain, M. Sicchio, A. Souers, S. Johnson, and B. Garber, eds., American Rivers, Washington, D.C., 1–80.
Aspen Institute. (2002). Dam removal: A new option for a new century, S. O’Malley Wade, ed., The Aspen Institute, Washington, D.C., 1–68.
Bushaw-Newton, K. L., et al. (2002). “An integrative approach towards understanding ecological responses to dam removal: The Manatawny Creek Study.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 38(6), 1581–1599.
Cantelli, A., Paola, C., and Parker, G. (2004). “Experiments on upstream-migrating erosional narrowing and widening of an incisional channel caused by dam removal.” Water Resour. Res., 40(3), W03304.
Cheng, F., and Granata, T. (2007). “Sediment transport and channel adjustments associated with dam removal: Field observations.” Water Resour. Res., 43(3), W03444.
Doyle, M. W., Stanley, E. H., and Harbor, J. M. (2003). “Channel adjustments following two dam removals in Wisconsin.” Water Resour. Res., 39(1), 1011.
Evans, J. E., Mackey, S. D., Gottgens, J. F., and Gill, W. M. (2000). “Lessons from a dam failure.” Ohio J. Sci., 100(5), 121–131.
Francisco, E. (2004). “Tales of the undammed.” Sci. News (Washington, D.C.), 165(15), 235–236.
Fread, D. L., and Harbaugh, T. E. (1973). “Transient hydraulic simulation of breached earthen dams.” J. Hydr. Div., 99(1), 139–154.
Hart, D., and Poff, N. (2002). “A special section on dam removal and river restoration.” BioScience, 52(2), 653–655.
Heinz Center. (2002). Dam removal: Status and prospects, W. Graf, ed., The H. Johns Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, Washington, D.C., 1–151.
Julien, P. Y. (2002). River mechanics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Landers, J. (2004). “River renaissance.” Civ. Eng. (N.Y.), 74(7), 53–59.
Pizzuto, J. (2002). “Effects of dam removal on river form and process.” BioScience, 52(8), 683–691.
Pohl, M. (2004). “Channel bed mobility downstream from the Elwha Dams, Washington.” Profess. Geograph., 56(3), 422–431.
Ponce, V. M., Taher-Shamsi, A., and Shetty, A. V. (2003). “Dam-breach flood wave propagation using dimensionless parameters.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 129(10), 777–782.
Rathburn, S. L., and Wohl, E. E. (2003). “One-dimensional sediment transport modeling of pool recovery along a mountain channel after a reservoir sediment release.” Regul. Rivers: Res. Manage., 17(3), 251–273.
Singh, V. P. (1996). Dam breach modeling technology, Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1–242.
Stanley, E. H., Luebke, M. A., and Doyle, M. W. (2002). “Short-term changes in channel form and macro invertebrate communities following low-head dam removal.” J. North Am. Benthol. Soc., 21(1), 172–187.
Thomson, J. R., Hart, D. D., Charles, D. F., Nightengale, T. L., and Winter, D. M. (2005). “Effects of removal of a small dam on downstream macroinvertebrate and algal assemblages in a Pennsylvania stream.” J. North Am. Benthol. Soc., 24(1), 192–207.
Williams, D. T. (1977). “Effects of dam removal: An approach to sedimentation.” Technical Rep. No. 50, The Hydraulic Engineering Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C., 1–31.
Wohl, E. E., and Cenderelli, D. A. (2000). “Sediment deposition and transport patterns following a reservoir sediment release.” Water Resour. Res., 36(1), 319–333.
World Wildlife Fund. (2003). Dam right! WWF’s dams initiative: Rivers at risk, dams and the future of freshwater ecosystems, Washington, D.C., 1–47.
Zar, J. H. (1984). “Comparing simple linear regression equations.” Biostatistical analysis, Prentice-Hall, London, 292–301.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 5 • May 2008
Pages: 652 - 657
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 18, 2005
Accepted: May 16, 2007
Published online: May 1, 2008
Published in print: May 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.