100-Year History Behind the Thousand Acre Brook Reservoir Dam Removal
With an increasing national trend in removing aging dams which no longer serve their initial purpose, one dam removal project in Massachusetts offers a long view of the changing perspectives on dam ownership. Thousand Acre Reservoir Dam, located within the Millers River Wildlife Management Area in Athol, MA, is part of Thousand Acre Brook, a tributary to the Millers River, which flows for about 50 miles in Central Massachusetts and joins the Connecticut River.
Our team was retained to provide design and permitting services for the removal of the dam, which has been offline and deteriorating for several decades. This removal will help to reduce safety risks, improve outdoor recreation opportunities, reduce potential for flooding, and eliminate the costs associated with ongoing repairs and maintenance.
In its current state, the dam causes warming that negatively impacts local aquatic species and is a major barrier to fish passage. The dam’s removal is expected to improve water quality, restore natural river flow, and improve aquatic habitat for fish and other species.
100 Years of History
Part of the original 1911 design documents from James Tighe’s design of the reservoir.
This project milestone is the latest step of a multi-decade, multi-agency effort to restore Thousand Acre Brook and the culmination of the 100-year history of the dam. Our firm’s founder, James Tighe, originally designed the dam for the Town of Athol in the firm’s founding year, 1911, to serve as a drinking water source amid a growing awareness of waterborne disease and water usage demand, heavily driven by local tool manufacturing. The reservoir served as a source of water supply for 80 years, and protection of the area maintained the brook as a Coldwater Fishery Resource (CFR).
As safe drinking water science advanced and water demand decreased through conservation measures and economic transitions, Thousand Acre Reservoir was taken offline in the 1990s and started to fall into disrepair. Removal efforts stalled until the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game, through its land-owning division, MassWildlife, acquired the watershed to become part of the Millers River Wildlife Management Area in 2013 and took over responsibility.
Thousand Acre Dam: A Timeline
In 1939, following a major storm, Tighe & Bond designed repairs to the dam.
In 2019, our firm facilitated a task force for MassWildlife to review their full dam ownership portfolio. Our team analyzed the current status, use, condition, and hazard classification of each dam to prioritize actions and determine whether each dam was to be removed, rehabilitated, or maintained. When American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding became available to the agency specifically for dam removal in 2023, the previous task force effort helped to identify Thousand Acre Reservoir as a priority project due to its location in a vast area of protected land, the downstream cold water fishery resource, and potential to remove an attractive nuisance.
The Future of Thousand Acre Reservoir
Following data collection in 2023, design and permitting was completed by the end of 2024 with construction planned for summer of 2025, where we will be providing construction administration and observation.
Tighe & Bond engineer Dan Hammerberg presents at a public meeting for Athol residents on the dam’s removal.
Our team pursued an accelerated timeline to complete data collection, design, permitting, and prepare for construction in a year and half. This challenging schedule was met through our significant dam removal experience, combined with our collaborative relationships with the Department of Fish & Game, State and Federal permitting agencies, and our longstanding reputation with local conservation commissions.
Thousand Acre Brook is home to eastern brook trout that are currently restricted to an area of the brook below the dam; the dam’s removal will increase the likelihood of the eastern brook trout establishing populations upstream. It will also increase connectivity and habitat for other aquatic species as well as benefit other species that have been prioritized as Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the Massachusetts Wildlife Action Plan, including white sucker, fallfish, longnose dace, and tessellated darter.