The removal of Natick’s historic dam will start this month.

The town’s official journey toward dam removal gained momentum in 2021, with the creation of an advisory committee tasked with evaluating and deciding on the structure’s fate.

In consideration of that, the committee weighed the potential risks should the dam fail.

The structure and its spillway were assigned a rating of “poor” by the state’s Office of Dam Safety, a designation of high risk that requires local municipalities to find a fix.

To that end, state funds are made available to help towns and cities shoulder the financial burden of addressing their dams.

The advisory committee found that renovating the current structure would require removal of dozens of mature trees on the spillway’s south side.

The body also took into consideration the costs of future repairs and maintenance that would inevitably come due with the passage of years and more impactful weather events precipitated by climate change.

“It’s definitely a financial win for the town,” said Emily Norton, Executive Director of the Charles River Watershed Association.

Massachusetts will grant about $1 million to help Natick complete dam removal, with the town pitching in about $100,000.

Removal of the dam and its spillway, the committee determined, was effectively a one-and-done solution to the potential problems the structure might pose for the town and downriver geography.

“We protect the people downstream in case there’s a breach,” said Norton.

Opinion was swayed by ecological arguments for dam removal also, added Norton. The thrust of the CRWA’s efforts is to educate residents and policymakers about what’s best for the historic waterway.

“To understand how dam removal makes a river healthier,” she said.

Water that stagnates before a dam tends to be detrimental to the chemistry and aquatic life that calls a river home.

A free-flowing river means water that’s cooler and more oxygenated, a boon for fish that can also move more freely without the impediment of a dam.

As Natick residents know, another Great Depression-era artifact is currently being removed to make way for a more modern descendent. Natick’s Route 27 bridge is being replaced, its means of ingress and egress redesigned for better traffic flow. Both the bridge and Natick dam were built in the 1930s.

The actual removal of the dam is slated to begin in the middle of this month, and is expected to be completed in as little as two weeks.

Once the structure is removed, the bulge of artificial lake preceding the dam will narrow, resembling more of a natural river. The water’s depth is expected to decrease also, from about eight to ten feet, down to about two or four.

This year marks “phase two,” a milestone in the story of the town’s dam removal project, the year the spillway and fish ladder will be removed.

The years 2027 and 2028 will comprise “phase three” of the effort, which will consist of monitoring the effects of dam removal, its impacts on the surrounding environment and ecosystem.

In a May 27 Select Board meeting, the body set forth its rationale behind the decision to remove the dam in lieu of repairing it. 

The Select Board in November of 2022 voted 4-1 in favor of removal.

Kathryn Coughlin is Chair of the Board, and stepped in on that May 27 discussion to drive home the town’s potential liability of maintaining the dam instead of removing it.

“If there were a dam failure, and if there was downstream loss of property or life, the town is held in strict liability, meaning there is no affirmative defense.”

That potential liability would exist in spite of the town’s best efforts and expenditures to maintain the dam.

A recording of that meeting can be viewed on the town’s website.

The dam’s removal will be staged from the south side of the structure. Crews will lay down a bridge built from sandbags out into the river, a platform on which construction equipment can demolish the dam, working backwards to Grove Park until removal is complete.

The scenic beauty of the area.  Photo by Sean Sullivan