B.F. Goodrich dam removed from creek

The removal was the primary goal of a lawsuit from a woman whose husband and son drowned on Perkiomen Creek in 2000.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
June 2005

By Larry Fish INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A small Montgomery County dam, tied to the drowning of a father and son in 2000 and at least five other deaths, has been removed, state officials said this week.

The removal of the so-called B.F. Goodrich dam, unmarked and scarcely visible from upstream, was the primary goal of a lawsuit settled last year by Joanna House of Collegeville. Her husband, Fred, and son Paul drowned on the Perkiomen Creek during a canoe trip.

Father and son were headed to Valley Forge from Collegeville. The dam was near the Lower Perkiomen Valley County Park.

The "low-head" dam was built in the 1940s to provide cooling water for a tire plant in Oaks, but had served no purpose in years. Common throughout the region, low-head dams, only a few feet high, are dangerous because falling water creates a churn that can trap bodies.

"I am definitely grateful," Joanna House said of the dam's removal. "I can never have Paul and Fred back, so I don't know that satisfaction is really in the cards for me. At least I will no longer have nightmares," wondering whether the dam would claim more victims.

Settlement was reached last year, and other terms were not disclosed. One of her lawyers, Jason Daria, said that House kept in close touch during the bureaucratic process of removing the dam to make sure that it was done.

In February 1977, four people, age 17 to 23, drowned while canoeing. And in August 1993, a 19-year-old man who was swimming in the Perkiomen drowned after being caught in the dam's undertow.

Dam removals are overseen by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

"The Goodrich removal went very smoothly," said Dave Kristine, a fisheries biologist with the commission.

Kristine said that only the normal process of permits and reviews delayed taking down the dam.

The Fish and Boat Commission is working to remove dozens of similar dams throughout the state, Kristine said, because they present a danger for people, interfere with fisheries, and upset ecologies.