– DelCarte Dam Feasibility Study
Nutting - recommend to take the money from the Hotel Motel Tax Fund instead
Matt Bellisle, Pare Corp
2 of the structures meet the MASS DCR requirements, need to be registered and maintained
Town is responsible for this, outlined in the Phase 2 of the report (see the PDF in the document published earlier)
The water provides a great conservation and recreation area for use by the Town folks
The trail system can be augmented, red lines on the chart indicate the proposed recreational trails (see photo below)
Incidental benefits:
- flood control, hold back the storm water
- natural cleaning process for nutrient removal
The control section of the dam is concrete, the whole dam is the raised portion which is earthen, the spillways are concrete
In the current condition, they are in poor condition, significant erosion, large trees are growing there as well, the trees are not good for the dams
The rate of degrading can not be predicted but they will continue to fail
Given the size of the vegetation, approx ten years old, the had been maintained prior to that
They have seen a number of aqua-culture uses but now are designated as conservation space
There are 2 that have the power of the State dam safety requirements even if you don't do anything with the other five
You could loose some of the flood control by not doing anything on the other five
The lowest dam #5 is severely eroded, water does flow around the spillway, additional erosion possible with large water events, dam #3 also shows signs of beaver activity due to the vegetation there
The dams are proposed to be repaired by restoring what we have (no major concrete)
an increase in the spillway size but not a significant increase in the overall size of the dam
A restoration of the original dam, not looking to raise the dams to increase the body of water
What is the trigger event to register the dams with the State?
In 2006, the State passed legislation requiring registration and enforcement
At the State, they are working their way down the listing, they expected the listing to be addressed last December. They are working on it.
This amount is for the design and permitting which should enable us to look for grants and other outside help to defer the cost of this.
If there is reasonable progress, the State will work with the community. They don't like no action./
3 minute recess
Franklin, MA
