Photo captions:

Dam Core Chairman Dr. Malcolm Ray discusses with contractors possible solutions for repairs to the temporary dam on Whitney Brook that was breached on Friday due to heavy rains.

Water rushes down Whitney Brook through the old dam gates in Canton after breaching the temporary dam.

CANTON — Committee Chairman Dr. Malcolm Ray gave the Dam Core Committee an update on the status of the breached temporary dam Monday night.

Ray met with contractors at the dam site before the Core meeting to discuss how best to repair the temporary dam.

“A 20-foot section of the stream bed washed out at 7:30 p.m. on Friday,” Ray said. “We have speculated that old stumps were under the stream bed and with the heavy rain, they washed out leaving a big hole under a 20-foot strip of the dam. We are developing a plan to plug up the hole.”

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Ray said they had lost all the water they had collected in the lake over the last month. He said he had talked to Hartford attorney Mike Poulin and Poulin said a permit wasn’t required to make emergency repairs, so they can proceed with plugging the hole. Ray said they thought they had found bedrock about 6 to 8 feet down.

Ray praised the Canton Volunteer Fire Department on handling the situation last Friday. He said the Department did a great job of notifying people downstream from the dam.

The water from Lake Anasagunticook empties into Whitney Brook, which flows through the center of Canton.

Ray said he had met with the Lake Association and Bob Thompson from Androscoggin Valley Committee on Government and Thompson felt there may be funding available from a Community Development Block Grant for building a new dam. The deadline for the application is January.

Ray said the dam committee needs to make plans for a permanent dam and make them available to the Department of Environmental Protection and Maine Emergency Management Association. Ray says he favors going with a plan to build the permanent dam on the temporary dam site.

Ray is still waiting for confirmation on MEMA’s law on flow capacity, but he is removing 5½ inches all across the dam, which is one log.

Raffle tickets to benefit the dam will be available Wednesday at the Canton Town Office to win one cord of firewood, an outdoor cedar bench, an Adirondack chair, a $200 Cabela’s gift card or a $200 Wal-Mart gift card.
The next Core meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on July 6  to continue developing a plan for the permanent dam.


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