‘Not good’: Historic New Brunswick dam being demolished

A New Brunswick dam that was built in 1917 is being demolished.

Bit by bit, piece by piece, the Kouchibouguac dam is in the process of being demolished, a sight that’s tough for Murray Tweedie to see.

Tweedie’s father was born in a stone house steps away from the dam, and the retired blueberry farmer has lived in the area most of his life.

“Not good, not good,” said Tweedie. “Kouchibouguac is losing a lot of history.”

The concrete structure was built in 1917 and decades later it became one of NB Power’s first hydro dams.

Tweedie said it provided service to the surrounding communities of Richibucto, Rexton and Saint-Louis de Kent.

Moncton historian James Upham said NB Power purchased the dam in 1939.

“It was the first one purchased by NB Power and one of the first electric producing locations in New Brunswick,” said Upham. “This was absolute cutting-edge technology.”

The historian said the dam was originally a sawmill built by local entrepreneur Richard O’Leary.

“That was a family that owned a sawmill, like a lot of New Brunswick families did. Like a lot of people do in life they started looking for other things to do with their stuff so O’Leary had a look at their sawmill and realized they could hook a power generation unit up to it so they could stick a generator on it,” said Upham.

NB Power retired the station in 1953.

Angela Malejczuk grew up near the abandoned dam and came to see the demolition for herself.

“It’s a part of our community, a lot of memories. it doesn’t seem like it was harming the environment,” said Malejczuk.

Onile Gallant spent part of the morning fishing in the Kouchibouguac River.

“Well, it’s pretty sad and it’s been there for a long, long time and I can’t see anything that it would interfere with,” said Gallant. “It’s a historical site really.”

In a statement to CTV News, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) said the demolition is necessary because the dam can impede fish passage depending on water flow and other conditions.

By removing the dam, DFO said the river’s natural flow will be restored allowing Atlantic Salmon, American eel, Brook trout, Gaspereau and Rainbow smelt to migrate freely throughout the Kouchibouguac River.

Malejczuk and Gallant had heard the dam is limiting fish stocks from the further part of the river, but believe that’s questionable.

“People are catching fish here like crazy, so the idea fish can’t make it upstream, I mean there’s two openings there that they can go through,” said Gallant.

Tweedie, whose father worked in the area, first noticed the demolition Monday morning.

One of the things that bothers him and his wife Diane the most was there was no public consultation or notice at all.

“We’ve lost a piece of the history with the old stone house rotting into the ground because it was not cared for and now it’s the dam. We don’t have much to hang on to anymore,” said Tweedie.

Tweedie is also concerned ice from upriver will create a jam and flood the area.

“The old stone house where my dad was born, the water used to come halfway up the first storey,” said Tweedie.

He’s concerned ice from upriver will get caught in the nearby walking and highway bridge pillars.

“That is bound to catch ice and jam and flood as it did prior to 1917,” said Tweedie.

The natural habitat restoration project is expected to be finished by the fall.

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