Deadly Hammel Woods Dam Slated For Removal

SHOREWOOD, IL — Less than two weeks after a young suburban man from Palatine and his girlfriend from Plainfield both drowned after being sucked underwater by the dangerous dam at Hammel Woods, the Forest Preserve District of Will County’s Board of Commissioners voted to take measures that will lead to the dangerous dam's eventual removal in Shorewood.

The latest drowning victims were 28-year-old Abraham Ramos of Palatine and 22-year-old Hannah Tammeling of Plainfield. Ramos was pronounced dead around 10:45 a.m. on Monday, April 1, and Tammeling was pronounced dead around 2:10 p.m. Monday. The two were pulled under water late Sunday afternoon on March 31.

Officials told Joliet Patch that they may never know why Ramos went into the water because the only apparent eyewitness, Tammeling, also died. Tammeling jumped into the water trying to save her boyfriend. Authorities have said that Ramos and Tammeling were regular visitors to the Hammel Woods Forest Preserve.

Less than six years earlier, in late June 2013, Michael K. Hughes, 24, Itasca, died after drowning in the DuPage River in Shorewood, also at the Hammel Woods Dam.

Hughes and two friends—one from Bolingbrook and the other from Naperville — decided to go for a swim after departing from The Crowd Around Me, around 3 a.m. ignoring a "no swimming" sign posted near the dam in Hammel Woods.

Patch reported in 2013 that Hughes was caught in the dam's undertow and/or the river's current. His two friends tried to save him — but were unable pull him out of the current and save themselves at the same time.

Moving forward, the Will County Forest Preserve District believes the dam's removal is necessary to prevent further loss of life.

However, Forest Preserve communications director Cindy Cain emphasized that plans to remove the dam were already in the works in the years prior to the recent tragedy.

"As tragic as the deaths were, this dam removal plan was in the works for several years," Cain informed Joliet Patch. "What triggered the plan's placement on the board's April agenda was funding for the project becoming available in early March via the coalition."

On April 11, the Will County Forest Preserve's board approved a contract with WBK Engineering LLC and a memorandum of understanding with the Lower DuPage River Watershed Coalition. WBK will be paid $104,100 to create a Phase II engineering plan detailing how the dam should be removed, according to a press release.

The contract also requires the company to obtain a dam removal permit approved by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The permit must be issued before any actual dam removal work can begin.

According to the Forest Preserve, the Hammel Woods dam was built in the 1930s by Civilian Conservation Corps workers. The four-foot-high concrete and limestone dam was built to create a pool of water for recreational purposes during a time when the DuPage River had a much lower volume of water than it does now.

During the 1980s, the Forest Preserve commissioned a study on the dam to see how it could be improved or removed. However, there was public resistance to removal of the dam for sentimental and aesthetic reasons, so the Forest Preserve Board moved forward with safety improvements to the site, including a portage around the dam for boaters, as well as dam repairs, the Forest Preserve explained in a recent press release.

In 2017, The Lower DuPage River Watershed Coalition paid for a study of the pros and cons of either modifying or removing the Hammel Woods dam. Dam removal was recommended, but the amount of funding needed was not yet available to move forward with the plan, forest preserve officials explained.