A special meeting Friday to discuss possible legal action by the Village of Riverside to stop work on the Hofmann Dam removal project has been canceled.
Village Manager Peter Scalera announced that the meeting was off after he and other village officials met Thursday morning with representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and concerned Riverside residents.
“They provided the group with the information they requested,” said Scalera.
Two citizens’ groups called for work on the project to be stopped last week after they learned that the Army Corps had hidden river flow estimates that differed from ones released to the public.
The Army Corps contends that the difference between the two sets of figures won’t make that much difference in terms of predicted impact once the dam is removed. But the new information, which indicated that the figures released to the public last September understated the impact the dam removal would have on river levels, alarmed residents and village officials alike.
On Wednesday evening state Sen. Martin Sandoval, whose new district will include Riverside after the November election, added his voice to those calling for work to be halted until the Army Corps and IDNR could explain themselves.
“I am demanding that no work begin on the removal of the Hofmann Dam until the agencies can earn community support with full public disclosure of all studies and data at your disposal,” Sandoval wrote in a letter to Marc Miller, the director of the IDNR.
Scalera said there will be a public meeting in the next couple of weeks where representatives from the Army Corps and IDNR will give an “explanation for the disparity in information pertaining to flow rates and river hydrology, additional information on the impact of the project to the river and the riverbank from 31st Street to Hofmann Dam, and a verification of all data by an independent agency.”
In the meantime, riverbank stabilization work will continue in preparation for the dam notching, which will likely happen sometime in June.
