Batavia plans to remove crumbling dam

BATAVIA – It was nearly two decades ago that Batavia was roiled with controversy over the fate of the Challenge Dam.

The city was making plans with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to remove the crumbling Fox River structure.

Batavians were bitterly divided, with traditionalists opposed and environmentalists in favor of the plan, in a debate than spanned several years.

Ultimately, residents voted to keep the dam in place through a 2003 advisory referendum. The IDNR shelved its plans and turned to dam-removal projects elsewhere.

Much water has gone over the dam since then, with the aging concrete structure continuing to deteriorate.

Now, the city of Batavia and the Batavia Park District are again making plans to remove the dam and undertake a consequent engineering project to preserve Depot Pond.

The Batavia City Council and the Batavia Park Board are expected to hold a joint meeting later this month to plot strategy.

The dam extends from the tip of the peninsula north of Batavia City Hall across the main river channel to the east bank at the Challenge Building.

The dam was constructed well over a century ago to provide power for the Challenge Company, one of the largest of the six Batavia windmill factories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that gave the community its identity as “The Windmill City.”

On the west side of the peninsula is Depot Pond, the visual centerpiece of the Batavia Riverwalk, but which would be reduced to a dried-up mud flat in the event of a catastrophic failure of the dam.

The pool created by the dam not only fills the pond but extends upriver to a point just north of the Fabyan Parkway Bridge.

Batavia Public Works Director Gary Holm said the city is confident that IDNR will fund the cost of removing the dam and performing the shoreline plantings and other treatments that would be needed along the banks of the narrowed waterway.

However, it will be up to the city and the park district to pay for the massive engineering project to preserve the pond.

A study performed in 2003 concluded that it would cost $12 million to enclose the pond and install a pump system to maintain the water level.

The idea is to construct an earthen berm extending north from the tip of the peninsula to connect with Duck Island and then curve northwest to meet with the west bank of the river, closing off the pond.

Park district Director Allison Niemela said that a 2017 survey showed overwhelming community support for an engineering solution to preserve the pond.

“Preserving the Depot Pond is the most important thing we can do to keep the downtown vibrant,” Niemela said. “It is critical that we work with the city on a master plan for the river corridor.”

While a sudden, catastrophic failure of the dam is deemed unlikely, its continued deterioration threatens to slowly reduce water levels.

“We need to do this before the dam does what it wants to do on its own,” 5th Ward Alderman Mark Uher said.

More than two years ago, Niemela and Batavia City Administrator Laura Newman issued a report on the condition of the dam.

“The dam has continued to deteriorate to the extent that a significant fissure exists in the east abutment that creates a concentration of water flow that exacerbates this condition,” the two administrators wrote.

Moreover, the dam is considered a danger just in its current state.

After pouring over the concrete dam, the white water below the structure churns in a circular pattern known as boil.

A boater swept over the dam, or an adventure-seeking pedestrian falling off the structure, could plunge into a deathtrap.

“It’s an incredibly dangerous situation,” Newman said, pointing to an incident just last month in which a Geneva couple’s pontoon boat lost power and struck the dam. The woman was swept over the dam before being rescued.

The IDNR wants to remove the low-head dams that dot the Fox River because of their inherent danger.

Memories linger of the 1974 tragedy that claimed the lives of two Elgin firefighters attempting to rescue a young man in an inflatable raft who went over the dam near the Kimball Street Bridge.

The man ultimately escaped the churning water, but the two firefighters fell from their rescue boat and were drowned in the undertow.

The dangers of the Fox River dams are obvious to insurance companies.

About two years ago, the city spent $71,000 to install warning signs and lighting in order to satisfy its insurance carrier as a condition of providing liability coverage against an injury or death.

This came after protracted legal research determined that the dam is owned by the city, not the state of Illinois.