BY ANDREAS YILMA
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
SEYMOUR — Removal of the Kinneytown Dam will be a long process.
Removing the Kinneytown Dam in Seymour, a process expected to take three years once a $15 million federal grant is received in about two months, will restore the ecological health of the Naugatuck River, improving water quality and fish connectivity, according to officials with the Naugatuck River Greenway.
“Our timeline now is about three years,” said Aaron Budris, Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments’ senior regional planner for the Naugatuck River Greenway. “That’s beginning as soon as we have the funding.”
It was announced late last year that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will award NVCOG and Save the Sound $15 million in federal funds to remove the dam that has been harmful to fish. NVCOG officials are still negotiating with NOAA on details of the grant and expect to have something completed in the next two months.
Kinneytown Dam is a hydroelectric facility on the Naugatuck River consisting of two dams with powerhouses in Seymour and Ansonia. It is owned by HydroLand. The powerhouse in Ansonia has been offline since before 2013 while the one in Seymour has not produced electricity since 2020.
The project will include decommissioning the Hydroland Corp. facility, designing the deconstruction plan and removing the dam.
Laura Wildman, Save the Sound’s regional director of ecological restoration and an engineer, said the purpose of removing the dam is to restore the ecological health of the river. That would improve water quality, natural sediment transport, fish connectivity and aquatic connectivity for other species, she noted.
She said there are no design plans yet, but it’s preferable to do this project in the summer when water flows are low.
“It could take one or two construction seasons,” she predicted.
The dam removal will be an inclusive process that will involve local neighborhoods, Wildman said.
“People will have a chance to discuss the project,” she said. “Community outreach will be part of this and they will have a voice.”
