Could Changes Be Coming To Sauk River Dam In Cold Spring?

COLD SPRING (WJON News) -- Could the Sauk River Dam in Cold Spring be getting a renovation? The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in cooperation with the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District will make a presentation to the Cold Spring City Council at Wednesday night's meeting about removing the dam and putting in a Rock Arch Rapids (RAR).

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A RAR is a rock ramp comprised of boulders that replaces the abrupt drop in water level with a gentle slop. Stearns County Conservation District Implementation Team Manger Greg Berg says a RAR has many advantages over a dam:

"There's a lot of different things as far as fish passage, water quality, you could even you know the channel being more of a natural channel when it's done so it can allow the flood flows and things like that to a lot of times be past or allow it to go through more efficiently that sort of thing."

He says a lake association brought up the idea of making the change:

"Sauk River Chain of Lakes Association actually brought up the concept of a dam modification and changing the outlet to the Sauk River chain of lakes with some concerns that they had from water levels and so that's how the conversation got started."

Berg says the presentation is the first step to be able to do a survey and profile the channel, and to get funding for it. He says at this time they are looking to get the council's approval to move forward with that next step and that if approved the entire process will take several years.

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