In her August 21 email newsletter, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller urged City Council leadership to hold a vote to approve the City’s project to repair the Bullough’s Pond dam at the Council’s upcoming meeting on September 2. However, City Council President Marc Laredo has said that, given the City Council’s normal process, he anticipates a vote will be taken at a later time.
In 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Office of Dam Safety (ODS) issued a Dam Safety Order to the City, requiring Newton to conduct a thorough inspection of the dam and bring it into compliance with State regulations.
In the almost eight years since ODS began investigating the dam, the project has been assigned to two different consulting firms, and Newton residents have raised numerous concerns about their respective proposals. While the issue has been discussed in several meetings of the City Council’s Public Facilities Committee, a vote approving any particular proposal has yet to be taken.
The Fuller Administration is recommending a proposal developed by consulting firm GEI Consultants. It would armor the downstream slope of the dam, with the goal of allowing the dam to overtop (water flowing over the top of a dam) in the event of a major storm without breaching (a break). The proposal would also remove 199 trees from the dam and surrounding Laundry Brook forest. The City would replace the trees slated to be removed and, according to Mayor Fuller, “improve the Bullough’s Pond park area.”
In her August 21 email, Mayor Fuller characterized the state of the dam as an “urgent safety issue.”
“After eight years of exploring potential solutions, we need the City Council’s leadership to move forward and allow us to make the much-needed repairs,” she wrote. “Bullough’s Pond Dam is a vital piece of Newton’s infrastructure and it is in critical need of rehabilitation. The City has done its due diligence. The recommended…