Extensive repairs have been completed on a 160-year-old dam in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts that state inspectors had classified as being a “high hazard.”
A $3.2 million project to shore-up and upgrade the Watershops Pond Dam has been substantially finished following 18 months of work, the city announced.
Improvements made include new sluice gates, a new hydraulic system, control box upgrades, modern access to the control system, and angled anchors for better stability of the concrete and masonry dam.
“The goal was to make several significant resilience upgrades to the dam,” said Tina Quagliato-Sullivan, the city’s Director of Disaster Recovery and Compliance.
She said the dam is now able to withstand severe storms and prevent a catastrophic flood in the city’s south end.
“Climate change is bringing more severe and more frequent weather disasters and so this is in preparation for that and to ensure there are better flood-control measures in the city,” Qualiato-Sullivan said.
The project was paid for with a $2.2 million grant from a disaster resiliency program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $1 million in city funds. The work was done by Gardener Construction and designed by GZA.
With the major work on the dam now finished, the city is allowing the waters of the Mill River to refill Lake Massasoit, said Quagliato-Sullivan.
“We are anticipating about 15-45 days before water levels return totally to normal,” she said.
Once the 192-acre lake is again filled with water and has time to settle, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife will restock it with fish. Wildlife is expected to return to the lake environs. Soon after the drawdown of the lake in November 2020, 40 turtles were relocated by animal control officers.
City Councilor Tim Allen said he hopes Lake Massasoit will become an even more popular spot for passive recreation such as kayaking, canoeing, and walking at points along the six-miles of shoreline.
“It is a beautiful body of water particularly in a mid-size city like ours,” Allen said.
The drawdown of the lake revealed it had been used through the decades as an illegal dump site. Six vehicles were hauled out along with other junk and debris. Two organized cleanups of trash along the shoreline were held during the last 18 months.
Allen said there has been some preliminary discussion about creating a non-profit organization along the lines of a nature conservancy to help keep Lake Massasoit clean.
“With this project being done – we only drain the lake every 25-30 years – it gave us some thought about starting a little group to raise money to continually beautify the lake,” Allen explained.
To reduce the runoff of harmful chemicals into the lake, the city’s parks department has switched to organic fertilizers and pesticides and has launched a campaign to encourage homeowners to do the same.
