Going, going . . .
Bill Tanger and the folks from FORVA and the Upper Roanoke River Roundtable have done what many thought was impossible a few decades ago. Just east of the Memorial Avenue Bridge, an effort to remove an old concrete encased iron sewer pipe “dam” that has been blocking the flow of the Roanoke River through Wasena Park for as long as most people can remember.
The removal started around the 17th of February and coincides with the city of Roanoke’s newest green space behind Black Dog Salvage off Memorial Avenue near Grandin Village.
The new park has been funded, in part, by a settlement between a local bioengineering firm and the government for violations of the Clean Water Act. The Army Corp of Engineers has incorporated a wetlands mitigation and reforest area with a berm along the Roanoke River for the length of the park.
Roanokers may have noticed the disappearance of the aging Hannah Court Trailer Park behind Black Dog Salvage at the Memorial Bridge near Grandin Village. Removal of the trailer park alone will greatly reduce stresses on the ecology of the Roanoke River, which has been subjected to pollutants from road, yard, pet, and sewage run-off from the trailer park for years.
The new park (click image to enlarge) will contain a half-mile walking trail, an environmental buffer-zone and a reforestation area. The border of the park along the Roanoke River will be flanked by a bench-cut–averaging approximately 30-50 feet in width– monitored by the United States Army Corp of Engineers.
The removal of the “dam” will be a boon to groups like the Float Fishermen of Virginia as removal of the dam will allow greater access to spawning areas and increase the depth of wading pools downriver. The River’s relatively smooth drops and long pools would make the length of the waterway from Ironto to the base of Mill Mountain a nice ride after a rain but for the man-made impediments (often, just abandoned concrete-encased sewer or gas pipes) like the one now being removed.