Dorothy Verdon had a history of moving around every few years. But when she found her lakefront — or, technically, lake-back — home in the Arbours of West Goshen in Chester County 12 years ago, she just really liked it.
Her loudest neighbors are the geese, who live at the banks of Fernhill Lake, a 64-acre impoundment formed from Aqua’s Township Line Dam. But under a plan from the public water company to partially decommission the dam and draw down the reservoir, returning the natural flow of Chester Creek, Verdon and her neighbors’ backyards would be subject to great ecological change in the coming years.
It’s a change environmentalists generally support, as dams greatly affect the ecosystem around them: increasing water temperature, generating algae growth, and fragmenting habitats. But residents, some of whom paid up to $20,000 for their lake-facing yards, worry what their backyards, and the developed habitat, could become.
“My immediate concern, and that of several residents and the township, is what’s going to happen to the ecosystem, because it is a water-based ecosystem,” Verdon said. “There’s that. It’s really financial. And it’s aesthetic. What are we going to have behind us as the lake gets drained?”
The planned decommissioning
Built in 1935, Township Line Dam once supplied drinking water for surrounding customers. But, as with a number of dams before it, that has not been the case for decades. Aqua acquired the dam in 1998 and does not use it for daily operations.
Township Line requires “extensive investment” to satisfy requirements from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which outweighs the benefits of a dam that no longer serves its purpose, Michael Fili, the company’s vice president of planning, design, and construction, wrote in a letter to the township’s board of supervisors in May.
Under its plan, the company will begin drawing down the water in the reservoir by eight to 10 feet, leaving the water at that reduced level until it begins construction for partial dam removal in early 2028 through 2029, Fili wrote. At that time, the entire lake would be drained. (The company originally planned to begin the process in July, but pushed the timeline back to fall following concerns from residents.)
Following decommissioning, Aqua proposed transferring ownership of the 114 acres to West Goshen Township, making the municipality “stewards of the land” that could “utilize the land for the benefit of its residents,” Fili wrote.
“We understand the reservoir and surrounding area is enjoyed by the community, and we do not take this action lightly,” Fili wrote.
The announcement drew concerns during a May board meeting from residents, who questioned why it had to be drawn down so quickly, and worried about what would become of the land — fearing further development, or lack of adequate care to keep it from becoming an eyesore. Some wondered if there might be a path to maintaining the lake.
“With all due respect to my fellow supervisors’ opinion, I don’t think we have an option here,” said Shaun Walsh, chairman of the township’s board. “If you keep it as a dam, you need to spend millions of dollars to fix it.”
Walsh said the township would keep it as an open space, possibly turning it into a mixture of wetlands, meadow, woodlands with walking trails — an “ultimately real beautiful amenity for people in the area to use,” he said.
“I think there are so many advantages in it becoming a publicly owned asset, given that the township is so built out,” he added. “I personally believe in 10 years’ time we should have an attractive amenity there for the community.”
(“When we’re all dead,” someone in the meeting responded.)
West Chester appears to have a right of first refusal to purchase the property at low cost, based on old agreements, officials for the borough said. West Goshen Township Manager Chris Bashore said that town was waiting to see what West Chester decides.
In a message, Aqua said it is communicating with both municipalities and “no determination has yet been made as to whether the 114 acres of property will be conveyed and to whom.”
Dams and wildlife
Residents also worry about what will become of the waterfowl, turtles, fish, and a bald eagle who have begun to call it home over nearly a century.
Largely, environmental activists believe that “the positives of dam removal outweigh any kind of negatives” said Faith Zerbe, advocacy and science community action coordinator with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which has sought the decommissioning of multiple dams over the last two decades.
The Chester Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River, is steeped with “impairments” — situations when a waterway does not meet environmental or regulatory quality — along much of its length. Removing the dam would help chip away at some of those larger issues.
“Removing a dam, allowing the natural stream to find its pattern over time as that dam removal takes place, and then restoring the stream banks with natural native indigenous species is kind of a critical piece to getting ecology back to the river,” she said.
Aqua said it is coordinating with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the federal Fish and Wildlife Services, as it prepares for its drawdown.
It is essential for the dam decommissioning to be done right, environmentalists said. But when done “thoughtfully and with the proper permissions, dam removal can have remarkable benefits for local ecosystems, allowing these areas to return to their original landscape,” said Carly Lare, executive director of Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association.
Her organization has been communicating with Aqua to better understand the project’s goals and timelines, she said.
“Since colonization of the area, this landscape has greatly changed, which in turn alters which native species can survive throughout our region,” Lare said. “When habitats are fragmented, our creeks experience diminished migration of native fish populations, which in turn influences the health and diversity of other native organisms, ranging from freshwater mussels to river otters.”
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