Rusty Spinner
Active member
The dam known as Coles Mill dam in "downtown" Califon experienced a partial breach of the dam near the Methodist church on River Road on Sunday. A very large ice dam was to blame, and the dam is currently allowing the SBR to flow almost entirely through this breach on river left rather than flowing over the spillway which is way over on river right. I got the call from one of our (TU) members that lives in town on Sunday and contacted DEP including Dam Safety and the Division biologist for that region along with Raritan Headwaters Assoc., the watershed organization. We met on site Monday morning and determined that further erosion of the dam was very unlikely.
So next is for the owner to hire an engineer to study the breach and either permanently repair it or start making plans for removal. RHA and TU will be pushing, obviously, for full removal. Wish me luck. This will be great for the SBR all the way through the Gorge if we can remove it.
And yesterday's rains........(photo credit to The Squirminator)
So next is for the owner to hire an engineer to study the breach and either permanently repair it or start making plans for removal. RHA and TU will be pushing, obviously, for full removal. Wish me luck. This will be great for the SBR all the way through the Gorge if we can remove it.
And yesterday's rains........(photo credit to The Squirminator)