Dam Removal and Decommissioning

Registration Closed

The Ballville Dam Removal and River Restoration Project is critically important to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The removal of the 35-foot high by 420-foot wide concrete structure reconnects more than 22 miles of critical walleye and white bass spawning habitat, restores the state designated scenic river to its natural free flowing form, and improves an important commercial fishery resource to the City of Fremont, Lake Erie, and the Great Lakes Region. The Ballville Dam was built in 1911 as part of a hydro-electric project. Generating electricity was deemed impractical in the 1940s and the dam’s impoundment was converted to the City’s raw drinking water intake. Seasonal fluctuations of nitrates and other pollutants along the Sandusky River, as well as structural and conveyance deficiencies of the dam, led the City to build an off-line up ground drinking water reservoir removing the need for the impoundment. Stantec worked with the City of Fremont, ODNR, Ohio EPA, USACE, the USFWS, and a number of other local stakeholders to complete the dam removal. Key issues include sediment transport, flood risk changes, environmental and dam safety permitting complexities, and interpersonal and societal challenges. Elements of the project include a feasibility study, environmental permitting, a NEPA EIS document, design of dam deconstruction and subsequent river restoration elements, and ice control structure design. The $12M project was delivered using the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) model.

Learning Objectives and Benefits:
• Overview of Dam Removal and Decommissioning Process
o Data Needed
o Feasibility Study Issues
o Permitting Process
o Design Considerations
o Construction and Delivery Options
o Monitoring Requirements
• Challenging and unique elements of this project as they relate to this and other similar sized dam removal projects
• Review of lessons learned that may be applicable to other projects

Audience:
• Dam Owners
• Dam Industry Professional Services Providers
• Regulators
• Watershed Restoration Practitioners
• Environmental Groups

Scott D. Peyton, PE

Sector Leader – Water Resources

Stantec Consulting Services Inc.

Scott is a senior water resources engineer and has over 20 years of experience in a variety of planning and design projects with total capital costs exceeding $2.4B. He has led a variety of both ecosystem restoration and heavy civil infrastructure projects and his work history includes complex environmental permitting and compliance, large river geomorphology and surface water flooding studies, heavy site civil engineering and design, and ecosystem and river restoration and enhancement projects. Scott has worked on over 30 dam removals and over 150 miles of river assessments and restorations across North America. He has been involved in all levels of a project’s life cycle, including conceptual level planning, preliminary and final design, environmental permitting, assistance during construction, post construction monitoring, and decommissioning.

Peter Haug, PE

Sr. Project Manager

Ayres Associates

Pete serves as a senior project manager for Ayres with a primary focus on improving performance of hydraulic structures and completing federal dam inspections. In the dam removal field, Pete managed the 2015 design and removal of the 257kW Gordon Hydro Dam (33 feet high with less than 40,000 cubic yards of sediment) and the 2012 design and removal of the 306kW Grimh Hydro Dam (30 feet high with 115,000 cubic yards of sediment). He has consulted on more than ten dam removal projects.