The long-anticipated Fish ladder project delayed at least a year
PAWTUCKET - The start of construction for the long-anticipated fish ladder project, previously planned to take shape at some of the Blackstone River's most recognizable spots this spring, has been put off until next year. Coordinated by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, the planning process is just not far enough along to get work started as early as originally thought, say local officials. "It's a complicated project with a lot of players involved, a lot of funding partners," said Barney Heath, Pawtucket's assistant director of planning and redevelopment. Heath told The Breeze he doesn't expect work to get under way until at least next summer. It was Sept. 20 of 2009 when local and state officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the start of a fish ladder/fish passage project intended to help restore the Blackstone River and its migrating fish patterns back to their pre-industrial era state. State and local officials at the time marked the start of construction for two new fish ladders, one at the Slater Mill dam and the other at the 1718 Main Street dam just down the river. Running simultaneously, the two construction projects were to get started this spring. When the fish ladder project is complete, it is expected that migratory fish will once again be able to find a way up over the Main Street dam at the Pawtucket Hydro plant, over the Slater Mill fish passage, over the Elizabeth Webbing fish passage, and finally to the Valley Falls Marsh, where the laying of eggs by "anadromous" fish can occur more than 200 years after it last happened. The two Pawtucket fish ladders, both built to allow fish to flop their way up a watery stairway-type structure, come with a combined price tag of nearly $4 million. Most of the funding needed for the entire fish ladder project has already been secured. What might seem to some a small boost for fishermen along the Blackstone should have far-reaching implications for all Rhode Islanders, according to the many individuals and agencies involved in the fish ladder project. The fish industry is a $180 million-a-year industry in Rhode Island, according to Frank Geary, fish ladder/fish passage coordinator and director of the Blackstone River Watershed Council/Friends of the Blackstone, an organization seeking to make the Blackstone both fishable and swimmable. When species like herring or shad, migratory fish that normally swim in salt water like Narragansett Bay but travel to fresh water to spawn more fish, have the ability to get upstream, he says, the population should automatically explode. The fish ladder project will have long range economic, cultural, educational and environmental benefits, among others, according to advocates like Geary.
