Project Summary

1. Project Identification

Name	Little Falls Dam Fish Passage Project
Region	Mid-Atlantic
State	Maryland
Location	The dam is located approximately 1 mile upstream from the border between Maryland and the District of Columbia and approximately 75 feet upstream of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal rubble dam.
Date of this update	August 3, 1999

2. Problem(s) addressed (check one or more)

Migratory fish such as American shad, striped bass, and river herring have been unable to access the 10 miles of historic spawning, rearing and feeding habitat areas upstream of the Little Falls dam. The existing vertical slot fishway at Snake Island was never successful at passing anadromous fish.

3. Project Description (100 words or less. Please include qualitative information, e.g. acres of habitat restored, miles of steam reopened to migration, and legislative authorization, e.g. WRDA, ISTEA, CWA/NEP, CZMA, etc.)

The Little Falls Dam Project Modification Report (PMR) was prepared under the general continuing authority contained within Section 1135 of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) as amended by Section 304 of WRDA 1990 and Section 202 of WRDA 1992.

The modifications to the Little Falls Dam include the construction of a notch fishway with three labyrinth weirs to allow fish passage over the dam. The existing grout bags in this portion of the dam will be removed for the fishway construction and replaced with new grout bags after the passage has been placed. The fishway will allow access to approximately 10 miles of migratory fish habitat upstream of the dam.

4. Goals/Benefits (quantify where possible using measures of success list) Was a cost-benefit study conducted for this project? yes/no If yes, provide a summary of findings.

The notch will provide passage to ten miles of migratory fish habitat and 3,017,000 Units of Fish based on the structure=s effectiveness of attracting and passing the types of fish that were used for the study (American shad, striped bass, and river herring).

Cost effectiveness and incremental analysis (CE/IC) were conducted to ensure that least-cost alternatives were identified for the different increments of environmental outputs and to evaluate changes in cost for increasing levels of environmental outputs. The recommended plan (labyrinth weir notch passage) was chosen because of its effectiveness and superior environmental benefits in relation to costs.

5. Partners (include each participant's responsibilities - funding, permitting, etc.)

• Federal

  Lead - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (funding, technical work, report preparation, permitting, manage study team)
  Others - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Chair Little Falls Task Force)

• Non-Federal

  State government - MD Department of Natural Resources (funding, technical assistance, permitting)
  Local government
  Private industry
  Public interest groups
  Educational Facility
  Other partnerships

6. Funding/Contributions (organization and amount)

• Cash

  Federal		$1,500,000
  Non Federal	State government	$500,000
  	Local government
  	Private industry
  	Public interest groups
  Total		$2,000,000

• In-Kind Services (hours, equipment, or other forms of assistance and estimated dollar value)

  Not established at this time.

• Volunteers (number of people and hours, and estimated dollar value)

  ---

7. Legislative authorities used by each participant

---

8. Value added by Coastal America Partnership including Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) goals achieved through this collaboration (500 words or less)

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9. Project Status

	scheduled	actual
Initiation date	March 1995	April 1995
Completion date	April 1996	September 1999
Current stage	The Little Falls Dam Fish Passage is scheduled to begin construction in August 1999. Contractor is Joseph B. Fay Company.

10. Contacts

• Project Manager

  Nancy Jedziniak (Project Manager)
  COE, Baltimore District
  P.O. Box 1715
  Baltimore, MD 21203-1715
  Attn: CENAB-PL-PR
  410-962-2926
  nancy.e.jedziniak@nab02.usace.army.mil

• Participating Agency/Organization Contacts: (e.g. volunteer groups, conservation groups, state agencies, and other federal agency contacts)

11. Any additional information/comments

Larry Leasner (Non-Federal Sponsor Team Member)
MD Department of Natural Resources
Tawes State Office Building, B-2
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410) 260-8341
lleasner@dnr.state.md.us

Peter Bergstrom (Chairman of the Little Falls Task Force)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Chesapeake Bay Field Office
177 Admiral Cochrane Drive
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410) 573-4554
peter_bergstrom@fws.gov

This page was last updated on Saturday, 24-Jun-2000 11:48:47 EDT
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