New England

Woonasquatucket River Fish Passage Restoration Project

The Woonasquatucket River Fish Passage Restoration Project is targeting the first three dams on the Woonasquatucket River. These dams are the:

Rising Sun Mills Dam Dam located off of Valley Street, adjacent to the Rising Sun Mills in the Olneyville section of Providence, RI.
Paragon Dam Dam located off of Valley Street, approximately 0.25 miles upstream of the Rising Sun Mills Dam in the Olneyville section of Providence, RI.
Atlantic Mills Dam located off of Aleppo Street, approximately 3 miles upstream from the mouth of the river in the Olneyville section of Providence, RI.

Woonasquatucket River and Project History

The Woonasquatucket River drains approximately 50 square miles of north-central Rhode Island. The river has its headwaters in the Town of North Smithfield, from which it travels approximately 19 miles to the south and east where it joins the Moshassuck River and forms the Providence River. The Woonasquatucket River watershed includes portions of the Towns of North Smithfield, Smithfield, Glocester, Johnston, and North Providence as well as the City of Providence. The watershed is diverse, with rural lands in the northern reaches, and high density urbanized residential, commercial, and industrial land within the southern portion of the watershed.

The Woonasquatucket River, a federally designated “American Heritage River” was heavily used during the Industrial Revolution. Numerous dams were constructed along the river to provide water for the growing number of mills and factories. Today, these dams are an impediment to fish passage. Preliminary surveys by state and federal fisheries biologists have found suitable habitat and conditions for anadromous river herring, including blueback herring , alewife , and possibly American shad in the lower river upstream of the Paragon Mills Dam. Restoration of the river and its habitats are an important part of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project, a proposed 5.5-mi bike path running from downtown Providence to Johnston.

Under the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, the project proponent, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, has teamed with the USDA–Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to implement a fish passage restoration effort to re-establish an anadromous fish population in the Woonasquatucket River.

Project Updates

Construction of the Denil fish ladder at Rising Sun Mills in underway. Click on the pictures below to view the progress thus far.


Rising Sun Mills Dam pre-construction (25 September 2007)	Rising Sun Mills Dam pre-construction (25 September 2007)

Concrete footing and rebar in place (2 October 2007)	Concrete footing and rebar in place (2 October 2007)

Fish ladder walls are formed (18 October 2007)	Fish ladder walls are formed (18 October 2007)

Cofferdams in place and preparing for concrete (1 October 2007)	Fish ladder walls are formed (23 October 2007)