As River Recedes, Waterway Maintenance A Hot Topic

Prep work has started for the installation of a crest gate on the Jackson Falls Dam – known to many informally as "Margarita's Dam," for its location, just behind the popular eatery. Workers will slice about 10 feet off the top of the existing dam in order to install the automated crest gate, said Tom Galligani, the city's Director of Economic Development.

Part of the process includes lowering the water level in the Nashua River, which has caused the water to recede exposing about 10-feet of "muck," according to Alderman Barbara Pressly, who has a particularly astute vantage point, by virtue of her living space at Clocktower Place Apartments.

"I went out and took some pictures this morning. The best way to describe it is a large section of muck moving along the river bank," Pressly said. "I've not seen anything like it before."  

Pressly said she saw the lowering of the river as an opportunity to do some clean up and maintenance.

"I feel the granite walls are being torn up by not managing the vegetation. I saw some of the workmen on the Cotton Mill side go down and pull some of the garbage out – there were an awful lot of old, rotten trees in there," Pressly said.

Despite the fact that a river that runs right under Main Street, and the city is host to several ancillary waterways, the care and maintenance of the city's aquatic resources falls under nobody's official jurisdiction.

Although the Nashua River Watershed Association does regular water testing, there's no one person or department to oversee such things.

To that end, Mayor Donnalee Lozeau is assembling a Waterways Committee, asking various community members to participate in figuring out the best way to approach the city's underutilized waterways, which should be a draw and a selling point for the Gate City.

"The purpose of the Waterways Committee is to look at issues surrounding Nashua's waterways, including our rivers, canals, levees,  dams, hydro dams, pollution, invasive species –  I've identified a list of people to sit on the committee, and Kath Nelson, of the Nashua River Watershed Association, has agreed to chair the group," Lozeau said. 

"My hope is that they can layout a plan as to how do we address these issues, what are we missing – we don't have a city department responsible for waterways, which is a problem, and so devising long-term plans around some of these issues is the goal," Lozeau said.  

An expendable trust fund of $50,000 was approved in April, money that may be used by the volunteer committee should they require a professional opinion or consultation once they begin navigating through the  process of improving the city's waterway system.

Nelson, who serves as water monitoring coordinator for the NRWA was also out Thursday, observing the work being done along the river.

"When I saw the trash and stuff along the river banks I had the same thought as Alderman Pressly, that this is a great opportunity to clean things up. Having said that, it's not as easy as it seems to get volunteers to do clean ups along the river," Nelson said.

"One problem is that it's not a safe situation, for volunteers to scramble down the mucky bank. Today, what I saw was a  lot of embedded trash, like a shopping cart half-embedded in the bank. Something like that could be difficult to pull out, or doing so could destabilize the bank even more. It's a conundrum," Nelson said.

Nelson added that, in an ideal world, this work might have been coordinated with a clean-up effort.

"But as with all things, there are other considerations – like the granite wall Alderman Pressly is concerned about. We can't know about making repairs without knowing whose property it's on – it's not just something the city could undertake, in my opinion," Nelson said.

She did say that Pressly was on to something, and that it might be worthwhile for someone to take advantage of the current visibility factor by recording the condition of the granite retaining walls.

"Once the new crest gate system is in place, we should have the ability to control the water level in a better way than the old-fashioned flashboards," Nelson said. A benefit of the crest gate and the new technology, is that the dam will be able to be operated without putting anyone in harm's way, something that in the past was a difficult and hazardous task," Nelson said.

"Alderman Pressly may be onto something, as far as the idea that, once the crest gate is installed and operating, perhaps we could have a controlled lowering of the river for a planned clean up," Nelson said.

Nelson has heard from other river watchers who were also taking in the expanded view of the mucky banks.

"We're seeing things we haven't seen before – we've never seen the river that low. You have to keep in mind the dam itself is a complex situation with a lot of moving parts, and after talking to some of the workmen out there, it sounds like they're doing a great job of keeping on a construction schedule," Nelson said. 

She is looking forward to seeing how the Waterways Committee shapes up, and what everyone involved brings to the table.

"It's great to imagine what we might be able to do, but for now, let's keep our eyes on the prize and get the dam project done on time," Nelson said. "It sounds like, given vacation schedules, the Waterways Committee should be convening as soon as the mayor can get everyone on board. From where I'm sitting, it sounds like we will be able to address a lot of the concerns that are on a lot of people's minds when it comes to our waterways, and it will be a good forum to move things forward."