Project Description
The Manhan River is a 27.6-mile-long tributary of the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts. The Manhan River Dam, also known as the Easthampton Waterworks Dam, is a six-foot-tall concrete dam that was constructed in the early 1900s to create a backup water supply for the City of Easthampton, MA. The dam was also used to provide hydropower for the city until 1947. The first dam at this location was constructed ca. 1690 to power a small mill. It had been reconstructed several times over the subsequent decades to provide waterpower for larger, more advanced mills that were built along the river including a textile mill complex that operated at the site between 1866 and 1885. To improve fish passage at the Manhan Dam, a concrete Denil-style fishway with wooden baffles was constructed. The project was funded primarily by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) with additional funds provided by the Holyoke Coal Tar Deposits settlement, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife and National Fish Passage Programs. The new fishway was completed in January 2014 and reopened about 11 river miles of spawning and nursery habitat to migratory fish for the first time in over 300 years.
DOI Project Representatives
Fish and Wildlife Service