Contact: Don Reuter (919) 715-4112
Date: December 1, 1999
Marines Blow Up Dam to Improve Fish Habitat in Neuse River Basin

RALEIGH -- The 71-year-old Rains Mill Dam in Johnston County today fell to U.S. Marine explosives, opening spawning areas along the Little River to several fish species.

"This is an act of restoration and re-creation for our rivers. Today we demonstrate that North Carolina is setting a leadership pace for the entire 50-state Union," said U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who helped give the order to blow up the dam. "This restoration movement began two years ago with removal of the Quaker Neck dam and continues today."

Rains Mill Dam was the third such dam in North Carolina to come down for environmental purposes in the past two years. Quaker Neck Dam on the Neuse River near Goldsboro, owned by CP&L, was turned over to the state by the utility for removal in December 1997. In 1998, the state also removed a small dam on the Little River behind Cherry Hospital. The Division of Water Resources of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been the lead agency in planning the removal of all three dams.

"These three projects have opened about 1,100 stream miles in the Neuse River and its tributaries for spawning and will lead to a substantial increase in our fish populations over the next decade," Bill Holman, secretary of DENR, said. "This is a great day for our fisheries and a great day for the Neuse River."

The 250-foot wide cement Rains Mill Dam, located at the bridge on N.C. Highway 1002 near Princeton, was built in 1928 by local farmer J.W. Baker to support a gristmill built at the edge of the dam. The Rains Mill Dam project has involved participants from DENR and the Coastal America Partnership that includes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Foundation. DENR negotiated a $67,000 contract with R&W Construction Co. of Jacksonville to clear debris from the dam after a team of Marines used explosives to reduce the 12-foot high dam to rubble as part of a training exercise.

State officials said the removal of the dam was thoroughly reviewed and will not cause environmental damage or increase flooding and will actually lower flood levels upstream of the dam.

The dam's removal, according to Mike Wicker of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, "opens 49 more miles of Little River streams and tributaries as spawning areas for anadromous fish (American shad, hickory shad, short-nosed sturgeon, striped bass, and alewhites). Removal of the Rains Mill Dam also offers much needed protection to tar spiny mussels and dwarf-wedge mussels."

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