Cornish
“It appears that he was in an area that out-surpassed his abilities,” Cornish Police Chief Doug Hackett said on Wednesday.
Reed McWilliams, 21, was swimming with a colleague in the river on Tuesday near Blow-Me-Down Farm when he didn’t resurface. When the colleague noticed McWilliams was missing around 5:45 p.m., she called 911, and a rescue effort began minutes later.
More than an hour into the search, rescuers spotted McWilliams’ body near the Vermont side of the river, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A native of Bethel, Alaska, McWilliams was in New Hampshire with the Student Conservation Association, a nonprofit affiliated with AmeriCorps that has offices in Charlestown. He arrived at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site earlier in the week as part of a six-member team charged with removing invasive plants and species in the area.
McWilliams’ mother declined to comment when reached by phone on Wednesday, saying she was about to board a plane to New Hampshire.
McWilliams was preparing for a career outdoors, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was studying astrobiology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and had spent previous summers studying salmon runs with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
McWilliams’ death occurred in a section of the Connecticut River that is known for being rocky and shallower than the portion of the river north of the Wilder Dam in West Lebanon. That’s partially why area rowing teams choose to practice on the north end, said Carin Reynolds, head coach of the Lebanon crew team.
“The river is two completely different animals below and above the Wilder Dam because the dam controls the current,” she said.
Stretching from West Lebanon to Hartford, the dam is commonly referred to as a “daily peaking” hydropower plant, which stores and releases water to generate electricity, according to the Hanover Conservancy’s website. The facility’s federal license allows it to change water levels behind the dam by about 5 feet, but it often releases less than that, especially in the summer when recreational boaters and swimmers are out.
John Hammond, a Cornish resident who for years operated a canoe company on the river, said he’s seen occasions where the dam releases water and there’s a visible change in the river. Usually, the current picks up and water starts to creep onto the banks.
It’s even possible to watch the river rise by about a foot, he said, but that hasn’t been the case this year.
“I haven’t really noticed a big surge in the water coming up this summer because it’s been so dry,” Hammond said.
Data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s West Lebanon station show the dam began increasing the amount of water discharged around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when the discharge jumped to 2,740 cubic feet per second from 1,760 cubic feet per second in about 15 minutes.
The river then increased in flow, hitting 4,870 cubic square feet at 2:30 p.m. and topping out at 5,650 cubic square feet at 7 p.m. During that time, the river’s gage, or height, increased to 6.5 feet from 4.6 feet.
Hackett, the police chief, said he doesn’t think a discharge from the dam contributed to McWilliams’ death, saying the flow coming from the dam when the drowning likely occurred wasn’t particularly significant.
The river itself was low enough that rescuers were able to walk across most of it on Tuesday night, he added.
The Wilder Dam operated normally on Tuesday, said Jennifer Link, a spokeswoman for TransCanada, which operates the dam. She said controllers frequently collect flow information, which they share on h2oline.com.
Gov. Maggie Hassan issued a statement on Wednesday mourning the loss of McWilliams and his contributions to the environment.
“This young man dedicated himself to giving to others, setting a strong example of the spirit of civic engagement that helps define and strengthen our great nation,” she said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.