cfrw.us Blog

The long awaited fish bypass project at Lock & Dam #1 has gotten a green light.  So for everybody who’s been wondering “where’s my stimulus money?” well, here it is.

From the Feb 7, 2010 Star News:

More than a decade after it first promised to do it, the Army Corps of Engineers has announced plans to build a fish bypass at Lock and Dam No. 1 on the Cape Fear River.

The $12 million project, which was mandated by environmental regulators in the late 1990s as mitigation for the deepening of the Cape Fear River shipping channel, has languished because of budget constraints and a lack of priority for the corps.

But President Obama’s stimulus bill freed up money for the work, which will see a series of rock pools built to allow migratory fish such as striped bass and American shad to get upstream to spawn.

“We’ve always had this project on our radar, and now we’re excited to be able to start moving forward on this,” said Penny Schmitt, spokeswoman for the corps’ Wilmington district, adding that the bypass will have a natural look.

Money for the fish bypass wasn’t approved during the first round of stimulus funding allocations, although it had been recommended by the local corps district.

But Schmitt said that lower-than-expected bids for some work, coupled with problems in other corps districts getting projects approved, made the project possible.

Also pleased that the project will finally get built are environmentalists and fishermen, who hope commercial and recreational fishing industries along the Cape Fear will recover as they have in the Roanoke River watershed. . .

Full article here