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Editorial: Dams like Geneva's are constant danger

A beautiful spring day after a brutal, long winter. An enticing river, beckoning the adventurous to discover all it has to offer.

But that kind of bucolic scene all along the Fox River, through communities from McHenry to Yorkville, masks a danger for the uninformed and the reckless.

And as it has several times in the last decade, that danger led to the death of a river enthusiast last weekend.

It's heartbreaking. And it's avoidable.

This time, a 26-year-old Bloomington man drowned in the Fox River after his kayak went over a low-head dam in Geneva, getting caught in the undercurrent. A second person in the two-man kayak survived.

To many who use the Fox for recreation, the river's low-head dams are known as dangerous and deadly. The state knows they are dangerous as it posts signs stating people should not come closer than 100 feet to the top of a dam nor within 50 feet south of one.

A 2008 state report recommended removal of the Geneva dam, and many river activist groups also would like to see it removed. That, of course, comes with a multimillion-dollar price tag, and it has not yet been done. In the meantime, those who use the river need to heed the warnings and learn about the dangers of the dams.

"Low-head dams are notoriously deadly," Ryan Rushton, owner and operator of Geneva Kayak Center in Yorkville, told Daily Herald staff writer Steve Zalusky. "So it's always just a matter of time, and that's why there has been big movement to either remove dams or re-engineer them as white-water parks."

Rushton's company used to be located in a building adjacent to the Geneva dam.

One re-engineering project was done at a Yorkville dam following the 2006 deaths of a kayaker from Villa Park and two brothers who tried to rescue him.

The latest death in Geneva comes three years after a Naperville man drowned after rescuing a 12-year-old boy who had been fishing at the dam and fell in the water. An appellate court recently upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the city of Geneva and Geneva Park District in that case.

Most agree that something needs to be done and, long-term, the most sensible option is to remove the safety hazard. Until then, river enthusiasts need to pay heed to the warnings and educate themselves on how to safely navigate those waters.

The Chicago Whitewater Association & Kayak Club offers tips on what to do near dams. But its basic advice is this:

"Your only real safe bet is to avoid dangerous low-head dams by portaging around them."

With spring finally here and the river's use gearing up, that advice should be heeded.

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