By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - Advocates for a historic 19th-century dam in Leeds plan to lobby the Board of Public Works tonight, asking for more time to raise money to fix the structure.
The 300-foot-long Upper Roberts Meadow Dam, located off Chesterfield Road, appeared headed for demolition after being deemed highly hazardous by the state's Office for Dam Safety in 2006. The structure is made up of an earthen embankment with a stone masonry spillway and was originally constructed in 1883 by the local Water Board as a means of generating water for the city, according to Board of Public Works Chairman Terry Culhane.
After it was ordered discontinued in 1905, Culhane said the dam hasn't been used as a water source and a DPW study done last year showed that if needed, the reservoir would produce less than two days worth of water for the city.
"I believe they originally hauled the water into town either in barrels or in horse-drawn wagons, because there doesn't appear to be distribution pipes attached to (the dam)," Terry Culhane said. "But now it isn't even the back-up to the back-up of the city's water supply."
Following the 2005 collapse of a dam in Taunton, which resulted in the evacuation of much of the city's downtown area, the state's Office for Dam Safety began reviewing the structural integrity of dams statewide, and determined that the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam was "highly hazardous" because it is in disrepair, is upstream of a very populated area and could have disastrous consequences should it collapse, Culhane said. "If it were to fail catastrophically, it could take the next dam out, which would be the dam above Musante Beach," Culhane said. "And our engineer determined that it could affect 280 houses and other buildings, depending on how you model it."
Culhane said the board has already voted to breach the dam at the recommendation of engineering consultants from GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc., but will consider allowing Friends of the Upper Reservoir and Chesterfield Dam, an ad-hoc group committed to saving it, six more months to raise money to save the dam.
Although he said he doesn't believe faults with the dam, such as active seepage, could cause a collapse or pose an immediate threat to the city, Culhane said the board has been mandated by the state to either repair or breach the dam. Its repair, Culhane said, would cost about $1.825 million, $600,000 less than the estimated cost of $1.2 million to remove it.
"It is a gorgeous setting, we get that. Several of the people who are most upset by this look at the little pond every day and are heartbroken at the prospect of seeing it drained," Culhane said. "But I would point out that if we rebuilt it, it wouldn't be the same lovely structure, it would be made up of concrete and look like a mini Hoover Dam, and we would have to come in and clear trees out by the dozen."
One resident looking to preserve the dam by raising the $600,000 needed to repair it, is John I. Clapp, 61, of 940 Chesterfield Road, who, along with his wife, Dee Boyle-Clapp, joined Friends of the Upper Reservoir.
The Friends' plan, Clapp said, is to raise money through local fundraising to hire an engineer who can determine the dam's killowatt potential if converted to generate micro-hydro power.
"At this point it seems like even with their figure of 30 kilowatts, we could make enough money off of the dam to pay for repairs, maintenance and future dredging, all three of which make up a large portion of the $600,000 figure."
Clapp, who has lived near the dam his entire life, said the Friends' desire to save the dam isn't solely to harness its hydro-electric potential, but to preserve the wildlife that depends on it and the beautiful setting it has created.
"The wildlife habitat that has been accustomed to the pond and relies on it includes the river otter, the great blue heron and a number of other species. The view is of one of the more pretty watersheds in Northampton, and there is the historical aspect because it is 130 years old," Clapp said.
Other concerns raised by the Friends, Boyle-Clapp said, include the sudden lack of water available for fighting forest fires if the dam is breached and conflicting results found by private engineers they've hired to consider a collapse and those hired by the city.
The BPW meeting is tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Room at John F. Kennedy Middle School on Bridge Road. Culhane said the meeting will begin with two public comment sessions, one focused on a possible landfill expansion followed by another specifically about the dam.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
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