Batavia Illinois – The 5th Ward

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Batavia Depot Restoration Efforts Underway

Batavia Depot Restoration Efforts Underway

The unfortunate current state of the Depot Pond has not gone unnoticed and some immediate actions will be taken by the Batavia Park District to help remediate the obvious issues.

The health of the Depot Pond in downtown Batavia is directly linked to the structural integrity of the Batavia Dam. As the dam’s condition has worsened, so has the pond’s, resulting in stagnant water, minimal circulation, and an overgrowth of vegetation and algae. The situation is complicated by split ownership, with the City of Batavia managing the dam and the Batavia Park District overseeing the pond.

While long-term solutions have been discussed for decades, the Batavia Park District and its engineering partner, Trotter & Associates, are implementing immediate measures to address the pond’s deteriorating state. Within the next two weeks, Eco Waterway Services will conduct an aquatic harvest, manually extracting invasive plants by their root systems for offsite disposal.

Although not typical to areas like Batavia, writing as someone who did it as a youth, manual aquatic plant management is a regular practice in urban areas like Chicago and may become a seasonal event.

Further plans for next year include installing a fountain to increase water circulation and budgeting for a second aquatic harvest to determine if multiple treatments can restore the pond’s function and beauty. These actions aim to improve the water quality and aesthetics of a key downtown feature.

Author: Jim Fahrenbach

Read More About Downtown Revitalization: https://batavia5thward.blog/2025/09/29/revitializing-downtown-batavia/

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2 responses to “Batavia Depot Restoration Efforts Underway”

  1. Marilyn Weiher Avatar
    Marilyn Weiher

    I am so glad that this is going to be done. I certainly hope that it’s done again next year, possibly in June so that it looks good, or at least not so horrible, throughout the summer.

    But I have no clue why we would spend money on a fountain. The dam has been deteriorating at a rapid rate for more than the past 10
    years. The rate of deterioration is only going to speed up in the next few years, so I can’t believe that there will be any water left to move in the next 2-3 years–possibly sooner if we have a catastrophic break. Has anyone seen all of the rebar that is showing? Let’s put that money in a fund to put toward a permanent solution. (It would have been nice to put the $3.4M for bike ramp into that fund as well, but…)

    Reply
  2. Bill McGrath Avatar
    Bill McGrath

    There is a too small pipe that leads from the pond under Houston and somehow gets back to the river, but I was told it can’t be opened as it would lower the pond. still water equals bad water. Plus the river keeps bringing silt in from upstream. If my memory serves, there WAS something like 286,000 cubic yards of silt retained by the dam. At the time removal was contemplated , policy was to not allow it to go downstream. That has changed and many removals are done slowly, over time. The gravel remaining from the Donovan Bridge project where the City was not allowed to remove the clean gravel put in as a platform for equipment has naturally migrated south and now protects north Clark Island a bit. That gravel would catch silt and ultimately create a new island.

    Reply

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