Daily Herald opinion: Salt Creek has benefited from the removal of dam at Graue Mill

When something has been around for as long as anyone can remember, it is not easy to hear that it must go away.

Such was the case several years ago when a group working to improve Salt Creek and the east and west branches of the DuPage River started moving ahead with a controversial plan to remove the Graue Mill dam at Fullersburg Woods in Oak Brook.

The DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup said that replacing the low-level dam with a rock riffle would help improve the water quality in Salt Creek and allow fish to travel upstream.

Still, the idea faced strong opposition from residents who said the dam — located next to Graue Mill — was an important part of the history of the 1850s-era gristmill.

The dam was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps after the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County acquired the property. Over the decades, the dam served as an idyllic backdrop for visitors taking family and wedding photos. However, officials said the dam was not the correct size to power the mill wheel reliably. Meanwhile, Graue Mill uses an electric motor for its interior milling operations — not the water wheel.

So, even though the dam made for pretty photographs, the dam was hurting Salt Creek and the aquatic life that relies on it, experts said.

In a story published earlier this month, senior writer Katlyn Smith reported that monitoring of Salt Creek found very low dissolved oxygen levels immediately upstream of the dam. There also was a dramatic decrease in fish biodiversity. Smith reported that 16 native river fish species, including emerald shiner, johnny darter, northern pike and rock bass, were absent from areas upstream of the dam.

So, despite opposition, the forest preserve district, which owned the dam, agreed that it had to go. Crews removed the structure late last year.

Fast forward to today, and water flows over rocks and boulders where the dam once stood. The riffle also oxygenates the water and provides a habitat for wildlife.

Officials with the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup say there are already positive signs because of the restoration efforts along a 1.5-mile stretch of Salt Creek.

“The refrain that I constantly hear is that you can see the river coming back to life,” said Stephen McCracken, the workgroup’s director.

Meanwhile, workers will soon remove the Carpentersville Dam, which will create a 10.2-mile unimpeded flow of the Fox River. That project comes after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has recommended removing all nine Fox River dams in Kane County, from Carpentersville to Montgomery.

What happened at Graue Mill shows that restoring natural wildlife habitat and improving water quality is preferable to preserving a non-functioning, not-particularly historic dam simply because it has been around for a long time.