Photo Credit: TAPinto Roxbury
Photo Credit: TAPinto Roxbury
Ledgewood PondPhoto Credit: TAPinto Roxbury
Photo Credit: TAPinto Roxbury
Photo Credit: TAPinto Roxbury
Newly reconstructed Ledgewood Pond DamPhoto Credit: TAPinto Roxbury
By Fred J. Aun
Last UpdatedAugust 18, 2022 at 5:11 PM
ROXBURY, NJ – Reacting to concerns expressed by a resident who said the reconstruction of the Ledgewood Pond Dam appeared to leave the pond’s water level too low, Roxbury officials inspected the work this week and found nothing wrong, said Township Manager John Shepherd.
‘So far, we see no issues related to the construction,” Shepherd said. “While there are some ‘punch list’ items ... (left to be done), none are considered major, and the project is substantially complete.”
The issue was raised at a recent meeting of the Roxbury Mayor and Council by Ledgewood resident Ron Watson. He asserted the water level never returned to its original depth after the $481,000, state-ordered dam reconstruction, which began in March and was completed earlier this summer.
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“Since they did their renovations up there, it’s a mess,” said Watson. “There’s no water left in the pond, the basin. It’s always had water in it. We did fishing derbies up there. Now it’s a mudhole.”
At the meeting, Shepherd agreed somewhat with Watson’s assertion. “The engineer noticed that,” he said. “He thought the water level was a little bit low, and he said he was going to go back and take a look at it just to make sure they haven’t done anything to reroute anything ... He said the water was definitely lower than he recalled in the past.”
Both Shepherd and Watson acknowledged that recent drought conditions have impacted the water level, but Watson contended the pond was unusually low even before the current dry period. “We’ve been through droughts like this before, and I’ve been here 30 years,” he said. “It’s never not had water in it … It was a viable ecosystem."
“It’s certainly been dry, but we’re going to take a look at everything the contractor did with the construction,” Shepherd promised Watson. “There’s a spillway … We want to make sure nothing’s been altered. It shouldn’t have been. The only thing that was done was the reinforcement of the embankment. There's nothing that they should have done that should have lowered the water at all in the pond itself.”
While that inspection this week found nothing wrong, Shepherd on Thursday said the township Department of Public Works “cleared some debris/overgrowth from the feeding stream channel which will assist water flow into the pond. The stream level is very low because of the drought conditions. Some rain will greatly assist the water level in the stream and therefore the pond.”
A trickle of water was coming out of the spillway below the dam this week. The water in the pond was green with aquatic plants and floating scum. Shepherd said the township “at this point” has no plans to “treat the water” or otherwise remove the unsightly greenery.
While the pond routinely became green with growth during the summer, the necessary removal of hundreds of trees from the dam, to enable the project, left the area looking shadeless and barren. Trees are not expected to be replanted on the dam as they would destabilize it.
Related TAPinto Roxbury coverage:
Roxbury Closes to Public Ledgewood/Morris Canal Parks as Dam Work Begins
Roxbury OKs Big Bucks for Long-Stalled Ledgewood Dam Job
Hundreds of Roxbury Trees to Get the Ax
No Timeouts Left for Ledgewood Dam Project in Roxbury
Roxbury Wants Another Delay of Dam Project that 'Defies Logic'
Nuthatch, Titmice, Robins and Bats Stymie Roxbury Dam Upgrade
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