Rule change sought for easier removal of outmoded dams
Official says many are decaying relics
Saying that environmental rules governing dams are too cumbersome and costly, state Environmental Affairs Secretary Stephen Pritchard vowed yesterday to streamline the regulatory process to allow easier removal of scores of aging dams that no longer serve a useful purpose.
Last October, public safety officials ordered the evacuation of residents along the Mill River in Taunton and closed schools and businesses for several days after runoff from heavy rains threatened to burst the 173-year-old Whittenton Pond Dam on the Mill River.
Had the rotting wooden dam burst, officials feared that a 6-foot wall of water would have surged through downtown Taunton. It held, and after the water subsided, engineers constructed a replacement out of stone mined at a nearby quarry.
Emergency inspections of 186 other dams after the Taunton incident turned up no other imminent threats. But the state inspections also led officials to conclude that public safety and the environment could benefit if a large number of dams that no longer served a useful purpose were torn down.
Standing in the way, Pritchard said yesterday, are complex and time-consuming environmental regulations that discourage private dam owners from removing aging spans.
''For dam owners who want to rid themselves of a liability, to protect their property and their neighbors' property, and to restore rivers and streams, the extensive process and related costs can be major roadblocks," the environmental secretary said in a press release.
Pritchard said he will soon convene a working group of environmental specialists to rewrite the state's rules to allow for easier dam removal.
In the release, Pritchard said many of the 3,000 dams in the state are still useful for creating water supplies, providing flood control, and generating hydroelectric power. Yet many others, he said, were simply ''decaying relics of our industrial past."
''Dams block fish passage, raise water temperatures, impair water quality, and block the natural movement of sediment and debris," the release stated. ''Dam removal can be a win-win solution."
The working group, whose members were not identified yesterday, will study recent dam removal efforts in other states, including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Pritchard said.
