Removing risky relics good option, some say

FREETOWN, Mass. — Driving north up the two-lane highway from the center of this town's Assonet section, where Town Hall finds its home and a white gazebo sits in a park, three dams stretch across the adjacent river. The first, just up from a store selling rare cookbooks, helps slow the Assonet River as it steadily makes its way over the dam's rocky face into a small basin below.

The other two are a few yards off the road and tucked into overgrown landscapes, easily missed. Yet they are two of the most closely watched dams in the state because of their deteriorating conditions.

John Laronda Jr., chairman of the Freetown Board of Selectmen, has been dealing with these problem dams - the Monument Pond Dam and the Forge Pond Dam - since he was 18, when as a volunteer firefighter he recalls having to place sandbags at the Forge Pond Dam during heavy rain.

Now, with recent state inspections again deeming them unsafe and a great risk to residents and businesses downstream, one option being floated is to simply make the problems go away.

As dams across the country age beyond their useful lifespan and communities, dam owners and regulators wrestle with how to keep up costly repairs, some say getting rid of the relics is a good solution.

"They're not used for anything," Laronda says while sitting in his office on the other side of town.

Over the past century, only about 500 of the approximately 78,000 U.S. dams have been taken down. But the idea is gaining momentum, and 185 have been removed in the past six years.

The dismantling of Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River is perhaps the most celebrated removal effort in the region.

Since it was knocked down in 1999, Atlantic salmon, alewives, sturgeon and shad have come back in such large numbers that even environmentalists, who had long touted the ecological advantages of removal, were surprised.

In Massachusetts, the issue came to light in October when heavy rains threatened to break apart the Whittenton Mill Pond dam in Taunton and send flood waters through the city's downtown. After several touch-and-go days, the problem was resolved by dismantling the 173-year-old wooden dam and replacing it in a matter of hours.

The Whittenton Dam had been classified in fair condition, but some recommended repairs hadn't been done, though a new owner had been scheduled to look at what repairs may have been needed when the heavy rains started.

In New England, most dams are vestiges of the region's industrial past, when they were used for generating power for riverside mills.

"This begs the questions: Are they still needed? Are they still serving a public function?" said Mark Cullinan, who 20 years ago headed what is now the Office of Dam Safety.

There are more than 15,000 dams in New England. Connecticut leads the way in dam removal, having dismantled some 16 of its approximately 4,000 dams. Massachusetts has torn down three of 3,000 and Rhode Island one of more than 600.

"There are tons and tons of dams in the region that may be able to be taken down. There are tiny dams that no one even knows about," said Laura Wildman, an environmental and water resource engineer for American Rivers, which works nationwide on river restoration projects.

She said many dams aren't being maintained "and therefore they just stay as these relics in our rivers, rotting in place."

Cullinan estimated that about 80 percent of the 320 Massachusetts dams that inspectors believe pose the greatest risk to life and property could potentially be removed.

"It's absolutely ridiculous to continue putting money into these if they're not needed and are posing safety risks," he said.