In a memo from the State Auditor’s office that came out this month, two of Sharon’s dams were listed as “critical” in accordance with the Massachusetts Dam Safety Law.
The Division of Local Mandates (DLM) of the Auditor’s office listed Sharon as one of the 62 cities and towns in the Commonwealth owning dams in need of remediation. However, this information does not appear to be entirely precise.
Mann’s Pond Dam, located off Billings Street, and Hammershop Pond Dam located off Ames Street are the two dams in question.
According to Cliff Towner, chairman of the Sharon Lake Management Committee, the town spent approximately $300,000 this past summer to repair the Mann’s Pond Dam.
“The problems there have been corrected,” said Towner, stating that additional overflow pipes have been added on the Mann’s Pond dam to prevent flooding.
Eric Hooper, Superintendent of Public Works, confirmed that repairs have been made stabilizing the Manns Dam, and that very little can be done to fix the Hammershop Dam.
“There is a discharge that goes under the street,” said Hooper. “Fixing it would be virtually impossible.” He added it would be costly to completely repair it. The road would have to be torn up in order to enlarge the channel.
Hooper went on to explain that the Hammershop Dam holds very little water.
“There is almost no water behind the dam, less than 15 acre feet,” he said. If the dam did break, there would be very little, if any, damage. “The water would go right over the street,” Hooper added.
An acre foot is approximately 328,850 gallons of water.
If the state forced the town to fix the dam, Hooper said they could remove some of the stop boards, erasing the dam’s functionality turning the pond into a stream. The town plans on negotiating with the state to get Hammershop Dam to meet the state’s requirements.
Emily Cousins, director of Division of Local Mandates of the state Auditor’s Office, did say the list of critical dams was put together based on information provided by the Office of Dam safety submitted in August of 2010.
Looking at the information she had, Cousins saw that Mann’s Dam had been given the green light and obtained the permits for construction in August. She had nothing on record for the Hammershop Dam.
“It’s quite possible they are no longer critical,” she said. “Anything done since then (August ’10) may not have been included.”
She suggested that the town may need to file some required documents to get up to speed.
Both dams do have to submit Emergency Action Plans (EAP) in order to meet compliance.
The EAP would include a basic procedure outline identifying such items as; an emergency response contact list, and ways to notify residents potentially affected if the dams broke.
According to Hooper there is an EAP in place for Mann’s Dam and they will be putting one together for the Hammershop dam. Once the plans are submitted both dams should be removed from the critical list.