The Mill River Park

Scenes from the old park; the Army Corps of Engineers transformation The Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) project, begun in February 2009, under the supervision of the Mill River Collaborative and the City of Stamford, calls for removing the dams at the Pulaski Bridge and at the Mill Pond that currently impede fish movement, navigation by small boat, and water flow in the Mill River. The plan it also calls for the creation of proper flood plains and tidal wetlands along the lower part of the river (between Broad Street and the Pulaski Bridge).

The Mill Pond Dam: There has been a dam at the Mill Pond since 1641. The current 9.3 foot dam was built in 1922, when part of the pond was filled in to create the Mill River Park and the 10 foot-high walls were built around the pond. This was primarily done to allow the pond to be used for ice-harvesting by the Diamond Ice Company. Today, winters are warmer and the pond seldom freezes over.

The pond design, though, raised the flood threat level to the inner City by about 3 feet. We had spectacular, costly floods in 1955, 1972, and 3 events in 2007. The 1922 design also caused unhealthy stagnation of the pond water in summer, particularly when the pond wasn't dredged out every few years and as the Canada geese population rose. The USACE project will remove the dam and pond walls, and re-grade the steep pond banks into a gentle flood plain, thus allowing healthy water movement and reducing the risk of flooding south of North Street.

Fishing: Mill River is an estuary at least as far north as Tresser Street, and fish from Long Island Sound can now travel up the river as far as the Mill Pond dam ( a few yards north of West Main Street, which was a part of the historic Boston Post Road). Once the restoration work is completed, it is believed that fish from Long Island Sound will be able to use the entire lower 5 miles of the 8-mile river. This is very good news for the fish and for human anglers, ospreys, egrets, herons, and the shy furry critters such as river otte