Indiana American Water recently announced it has secured all permits required to begin demolition of the low-head river dam on the East Fork White River near the company’s water treatment facility in Rockford.

The company serves approximately 22,000 people in the Seymour area from the plant at 7417 N. County Road 760E, just south of East Reddington Street.

The Rockford Dam, which spans about 450 feet across the width of the river, originally provided adequate water levels for supplying surface water to the adjacent water treatment facility. The dam is no longer needed since Indiana American now uses groundwater as the only source for its Seymour system.

Dan Cristiani Excavating LLC, a Clarksville company, has been contracted to remove the dam and the work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

As a safety measure and in an abundance of caution, Indiana American is asking the public to refrain from boating or kayaking in or near that area and is also asking citizens to not stop along nearby roads to watch the decommissioning of the dam. No public viewing site for the work being performed is available.

“We pride ourselves in being good stewards of the environment,” said Wade Amos, Indiana American Water’s director of operations. “After we switched our Seymour water treatment system to source water from wells instead of the river in the late 1990s, we sought input from state and nonprofit conservation organizations that provided us insights on the value of removing dams to improve the river’s aquatic ecosystem.”

Removal of the dam will improve safety for recreational users of the river by eliminating recirculating currents that are typically associated with low-head dams. The project will also enhance habitat and aquatic species biodiversity and restore the natural river ecosystem, which gained the attention of several organizations seeking to restore aquatic ecosystems.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, through its Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Lake and River Enhancement Program, provided a grant of $90,000 to assist with the costs of removing the dam. This grant was administered by The Nature Conservancy in partnership with Ecosystems Connections Institute, and with support from Cummins, Inc., who also contributed to the dam removal project.

In addition, the National Fish Passage Program through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services provided a $150,000 grant under its National Fish Passage Program. Remaining costs for demolishing the dam will be paid for by Indiana American Water.