Eight ageing dams in central and western Massachusetts will probably be eliminated as a part of a $25 million initiative introduced Friday by state environmental officers.
The constructions to be dismantled embody the deserted high-hazard Bel Air Dam in Pittsfield.
Removing the dams will restore fish and different wildlife habitats, improve biodiversity, enhance water high quality, promote local weather resiliency and make communities safer, officers stated.
“This summer, we saw firsthand the catastrophic impacts of severe flooding and the stress and pressure it puts on our dams,” Gov. Maura Healey stated.
The floods earlier this yr put just a few dams in danger and raised issues that the constructions might more and more be in danger because the area is hit by stronger and wetter storms.
There are hundreds of dams throughout New England and plenty of had been constructed many years if not centuries in the past, usually to assist energy textile mills, retailer water or provide irrigation to farms. The concern is that they have outlived their usefulness and local weather change may carry storms they had been by no means constructed to face up to.
Of the $25 million, $20 million will help the removing of Bel Air Dam, and $5 million will go towards the removing of the remaining seven dams.
The removing of the Bel Air Dam will scale back the chance of downstream flooding that might have an effect on almost 500 parcels of land, together with residential, enterprise, industrial, and industrial areas.
As a part of the dam’s removing the state will get rid of contaminated sediments off-site to scale back well being dangers, officers stated. The dam’s removing must also enhance fish passage and enhance ecological restoration of the west department of the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, the place the dam sits.
The remaining seven dams are: Cusky Pond Dam in New Braintree; Schoolhouse Pond Dam in Sutton; Patrill Hollow Pond Dam in Hardwick; Thousand Acre Reservoir Dam in Athol; Arnold Pond Dam in Sutton; Salmon Pond Dam in Brookfield; and Weston Brook Dam in Windsor.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”