Owners offer land to Brentwood if Mill Road (Phillips) Dam is removed; $675,000 state grant secured
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Summary
Owners of the Mill Road (Phillips) Dam told the Select Board they have secured $675,000 from the Aquatic Resource Mitigation Fund and are planning removal; they offered to convey small parcels and flowage rights to Brentwood after removal but said the town would not be expected to pay removal costs.
Brentwood — Attorney Jason Reimers and Naoto Inouye of Brentwood Dam Ventures presented Tuesday night with an update on a multi-year plan to remove the Mill Road (Phillips) Dam and restore river passage on the Exeter River.
Reimers said American Rivers is serving as project manager and that the group has secured $675,000 from the Aquatic Resource Mitigation Fund administered by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. As a condition of that funding, federal and state partners typically require long-term protection of the property once the dam is removed.
Naoto Inouye, manager of Brentwood Dam Ventures, said the privately owned dam is expensive to repair to FERC or New Hampshire Dam Bureau standards and that Brentwood Dam Ventures lacks funds to meet those standards. He offered to relinquish ownership and to convey narrow strips of land and flowage rights to the town following removal, conditioned on survey work and an executed conveyance.
Board members and residents pressed for clarity on cost exposure, liability and regulatory involvement. Several speakers urged the board to invite a representative of the New Hampshire Dam Bureau to explain the process, potential town responsibilities and precedent from Exeter, which has spent preliminary engineering dollars and substantial removal funds in a similar project. Reimers and Inouye said they were not asking the town to pay removal costs and that they expect further fundraising through American Rivers if additional money is needed.
Key details provided at the hearing include an estimated timeline of roughly two years for project completion once all studies and permitting are done, a tax card showing the parcel at about 0.23 acres (presenters said survey will clarify exact boundaries), and an unpaid tax amount on the dam property of about $9,341 noted by the chair and acknowledged by the owners.
The Board asked staff to follow up with the conservation commission, the New Hampshire Dam Bureau, and the regional land trust (SELT) to determine long-term protection and monitoring options should the town consider accepting the property or flowage rights.