TAUNTON, Mass. – Crews worked quickly in the rain Saturday to finish construction on a new dam and dismantle a decrepit one that nearly collapsed earlier this week, prompting evacuations and fears of massive flooding in this city.
As a steady rain fell Saturday, workers used a grappling hook to grab chunks of the 173-year-old Whittenton Pond Dam and remove it from the Mill River.
Several feet downstream, an excavator moved three-ton boulders and crushed rock into the water, putting the finishing touches on a new rock dam that had been started Friday afternoon.
“I can’t tell you how amazing this is,” said Myrtle Walkden, a Taunton resident who watched the construction from a neighbor’s backyard. “I can’t believe we can have this in one day.”
The wooden Whittenton Pond dam buckled and started breaking apart on Monday after a weekend of heavy rain. Fearing a breach would send a wall of water up to 6 feet crashing through the city, Mayor Robert Nunes evacuated 2,000 residents and closed downtown businesses for several days.
By Friday, all residents were back in their homes and pumping had brought the water level of Lake Sabbatia behind the dam down nearly 3 feet.
Officials had planned to reinforce the old structure, but later scrapped the idea after an inspection showed it was beyond repair.
Acting Fire Chief Leman Padelford said the rock dam would provide stability not available from the wooden structure.
“It won’t be leaving next week,” he said. Padelford added that the rock structure would likely be replaced or modified once the dam’s owners and state and local officials discuss its future in coming weeks. But, any additional modifications wouldn’t happen until the spring, Padelford said.
The new dam spans 100 feet across the Mill River and is 25 feet thick. It connects to the concrete base of the old wooden structure, and is designed to slow the flow of water down the river. Piping, or culverts, carry water through the structure. Any major rise in water-levels would cause the river to spill over the boulders in a small waterfall.
Michael Nisslin, deputy chief engineer with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, said the rock berm creates a slow and consistent flow, as opposed to blocking up water.
Nisslin said the quick construction wasn’t ideal, but necessary because of the rain forecast this weekend.
“We prefer not to work this fast,” he said.
Troy Bissonnette, 18, who lives about 800 yards from dam said he could hear construction noise all night. While he was glad crews were shoring up the dam, he said “it should’ve been done 20 years ago.”
Whittenton Pond Dam, one of about 3,000 private dams in the state, dates to 1832. It was built to power a textile mill but no longer has any industrial purpose. The city last flooded in 1968, when the same dam broke.
The scare in Taunton last week prompted Gov. Mitt Romney to order emergency inspections of 186 dams that were deemed most likely to be dangerous.
Those inspections were completed Friday night, said Joe O’Keefe, chief of staff at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
“No unexpected or serious deficiencies were found by the inspectors,” O’Keefe said Saturday. “The only problems found were correctable. … There were no Taunton-like situations uncovered.”
The 186 dams are among 320 considered to be “high hazard,” which refers to potential damage that could be caused by the dams’ failure, not the conditions of the dams.
The rest of the 320 are considered to be in good condition, and will be inspected later.
O’Keefe said he didn’t have details of what the inspectors had found, other than the overall finding that no other dams are in danger of bursting.
He also didn’t know the timeline for inspections of the rest of the 320, but said the governor would likely announce that on Monday, after he was briefed on the 186 emergency inspections.
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Associated Press Writer Theo Emery contributed to this report from Boston.
AP-ES-10-22-05 1537EDT
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