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Mount Wachusett Community College seeks permission to engineer breach Old Duck Pond Dam; commission continues review to April 14
Summary
A consultant for Mount Wachusett Community College presented a proposal to breach the Old Duck Pond Dam and restore wetlands and stream habitat. The commission discussed hydrology, water-control staging, fisheries timing and culvert sizing and continued the public hearing to April 14 for DEP review and additional details.
Mount Wachusett Community College presented plans to engineer a controlled breach of Old Duck Pond Dam on the college campus, proposing to reduce the pond from about five acres to roughly 2.3 acres and restore former wetland area. The commission continued the public hearing to April 14 to allow the applicant to coordinate with MassDEP and Fisheries on timing and to supply additional technical details.
Why it matters: The dam is subject to dam-safety orders from the Massachusetts Office of Dam Safety and is in poor condition. The college seeks to remove the dam from dam-safety regulation and to restore more natural stream and wetland habitat while maintaining downstream hydraulics.
Consultant Dan Spelt of Haley & Aldrich described the staged approach: set erosion controls, pump the pond down in controlled increments with temporary bypass piping, install cofferdams and perform limited excavation to cut a new channel and remove trees and vegetation from the dam face. Spelt explained the team plans to leave roughly 2.3 acres of shallow water (1–2 foot deep depressions) rather than dewater and dredge the entire pond. He said temporary portable cofferdams and bypass piping would allow much of the work to proceed in the dry and that the permanent culvert would handle post-construction flows.
Commissioners focused on hydraulics, culvert design and downstream impacts. One commissioner asked whether the existing 24-inch culvert and downstream infrastructure are sized to accommodate the change; Spelt said the post-breach hydraulics are intended to match current flows and that the project’s design accounts for a 500-year storm (the proposed configuration would retain up to about 2.2 feet of water during that design storm). Spelt also described a planting plan for the newly exposed areas and said that removing trees from the dam crest is necessary for safety.
Timing and approvals: The applicant said MassWildlife requested dewatering be completed before Sept. 1 to minimize fish impacts, and the consultant said the work window and construction staging are being coordinated with fisheries. The commission asked for additional details about timing, fish handling, culvert profiling and materials and asked the applicant to return with DEP comments and those technical clarifications on April 14.
Action taken: The commission voted to continue the Old Duck Pond Dam breach hearing to April 14 for further technical details, coordination with regulators and field verification as needed.
