Worried about safety, state sues owner of two Taunton dams

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

The state has filed a lawsuit against the owner of two dams in Taunton that have been declared structurally unsound and pose a risk of massive floods when heavy rainfall occurs.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court requests the owner of the dams to make immediate repairs to the Morey’s Bridge Dam and a cofferdam, 25 feet away, that hold back the waters of the 250-acre Lake Sabbatia off Bay Street. A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

The dams are owned by the same company, Jefferson Development Partners, that owned the former Whittenton Pond Dam that threatened to collapse in 2005, forcing the evacuation of some 2,000 residents who were downstream from the deteriorating structure. The dam has since been replaced.

The Whittenton Pond dam has no direct ties to the two structures at Lake Sabbatia, but the concerns about a possible breach and flooding are the same, state and local officials said.

“We do have an issue of public safety that’s still in the balance here,” said state Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, a Democrat from Taunton who has lobbied for more funding for dam repairs since 2005.

“It’s been years and we still have not seen the right outcome here.”

The state Department of Environmental Protection has already levied a $30,000 fine against Jefferson Development Partners, though the implementation of the fine has been suspended while agencies continue to ask the company to make repairs.

David L. Murphy, the company’s principal, did not return a phone call seeking comment today but told the Globe in February – when steady rainfall triggered concerns of floods and a breach of the dams – that he did not think safety was at risk.

The lawsuit brought by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office, under the Massachusetts Dam Safety Act, the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, and the Massachusetts Waterways Statute, was based on state officials’ fruitless attempts to have the repairs made so far, a spokesman for the office said.

“Our goal in filing this lawsuit is not only to hold accountable the owner of these two structures, but also to ensure the safety of those who live near the lake,” Coakley said in a statement.

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