The Story of Vermont by Klyza Christopher McGrory;Trombulak Stephen C.;McKibben Bill;

Author:Klyza, Christopher McGrory;Trombulak, Stephen C.;McKibben, Bill;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England

FIGURE 5.3 Downtown Montpelier, 1927 flood. Used by permission of Special Collections, University of Vermont Libraries.

After the flood, Vermont and the rest of New England started to focus seriously on flood control projects. In 1928, the Vermont Advisory Committee of Engineers on Flood Control proposed a master plan of eighty-five dams and reservoirs throughout the entire state. State leaders rejected this plan as too grand; it flooded too much quality farmland and placed water power under private control. Vermont did, however, strongly support dams in the Winooski River Valley, where the worst damage had occurred. In 1933, with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and supervised by the Army Corps of Engineers, work began on three dams in the valley: Barre Dam, Wrightsville Dam, and Little River Dam (see Map 5.1). The reservoirs behind most of these proposed flood control dams are usually empty; they are there simply to hold water in the event of a flood. In March 1936, during further formulation of the larger plans, floods again struck the Connecticut River Valley, hitting Massachusetts and Connecticut the hardest. In response, the New England states began work on an interstate compact to deal with the flood control issues of the Connecticut River Valley. From Vermont’s perspective, the problem was that most of the dams would have to be built upriver, in New Hampshire and Vermont, and that these dams would flood some of the states’ narrow valleys and their prime farmland. The compact agreed to by the states would feature eight dams, three in Vermont. But Congress never approved the compact, because of a battle between the states—led by Vermont governor Aiken—and the federal government over control of the dams. The states claimed that the dams were only for flood control, while Washington, fearful that the states would grant the authority to create electricity at the sites to private utilities, wanted control over power as well as flood control. Congress sided with the administration, passing a law giving the federal government the power to build the dams and control power generated there, regardless of state wishes. The first Vermont project was started at Union Village in the Ompompanoosuc River Valley in 1938, but Aiken and Vermont kept up their opposition and that dam was never built.

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