Hunters Pond Dam Removal

Princeton Hydro was hired by the Town of Scituate and Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration to provide engineering feasibility, design, permitting, and construction oversight services for the dam removal in Scituate, MA. The project was a MA DER priority project due to its high potential for restoration of diadromous fish. The dam was a head of tide dam with rainbow smelt spawning habitat just below the dam.

The site had significant historic value, including an old mill building once owned by the great, great, great grandfather of Abraham Lincoln. The site was also bifurcated by the historic “Boundary Line,” a border established in 1640 which denoted the boundary between the colonies of Massachusetts and New Plymouth. Significant Section 106 historic and archeological consultation was therefore incorporated into this dam removal project. The project also included significant outreach to the local community, primarily made up of abutting property owners concerned about the loss of the impoundment behind the dam.

The project was initiated due to the need to pave Mordechai Lincoln Road, but paving was not possible without first repairing the dam’s overflow pipe which extended under the historic mill building. A project partnership was then developed with numerous state agencies and environmental organizations, led by MA DER and the Town of Scituate, to find funding for the removal of the dam and the restoration of Bound Brook.

The dam removal was complicated by the existence of an active water main directly upstream of the dam. As part of the design, our design team had to relocate the water main as well as slip line the decaying pipe under the historic mill building.

Passive restoration methods were utilized, allowing Bound Brook to find its own diverse channel pattern within the dewatered impoundment. The design plans depicted multiple potential paths where the channel might form. At Princeton Hydro we practice a “less is more” design approach to restoration, placing our faith in the natural channel forming processes of a river whenever possible.