FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP/NewsChannel 5) - The Harpeth River is flowing freely for the first time in 50 years.
On Wednesday, heavy equipment removed a small dam that formed a pool used to supplement the city of Franklin's drinking water.
Thanks to improved technology, Franklin will still be able to pull water from the river. The 6-foot-high dam will be replaced with a low-profile, in-stream boulder feature that has a drop of only about 6 inches but still creates a small pool. Fish and other aquatic animals will be able to move through it both ways. So will people who boat or fish there.
Dorie Bolze is executive director of the Harpeth River Watershed Association and helped pull the project together. The river biologist said the Harpeth has an amazing variety of fish and other animals.
Work to remove the dam should take another week to complete. Then the process of renovating the riverbank and creating a new take-in area for the Franklin Water Department will begin.
The $870,000 cost is partially offset by $350,000 in federal grants to the Harpeth River Watershed Association.
The Department of the Interior has named the project as a model of America's Great Outdoors River Initiative to conserve.
The entire project, with new trees and a parking lot, should be finished by the fall.
(The Associated Press Contributed To This Report.)
