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CAROL LOLLIS

The Upper Roberts Meadow Reservoir lies upstream of the dam on Chesterfield Road in Northampton.

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CAROL LOLLIS

A campaign is working to preserve the dam on Chesterfield Road in Northampton, which officials want to take down for safety reasons.

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CAROL LOLLIS PHOTOS

This dam on Chesterfield Road in Northampton created the Upper Roberts Meadow Reservoir. Residents have begun a campaign to preserve the dam, which officials want to take down for safety reasons.

NORTHAMPTON - The Board of Public Works and a group of residents remain at odds over whether an historic, "high-hazard" dam in Leeds should get the wrecking ball or undergo extensive repairs.

After more than a year of disagreement surrounding the 130-year-old Upper Roberts Meadow Dam on the Mill River, the two sides are still at arms-length. At a special meeting Tuesday, the Friends of the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam's pleas for a partnership that would make it easier to raise the money to repair the dam went unanswered.

The group wants to restore the dam for historical and aesthetic reasons and to harness its reservoir as a potential source of micro-hydropower. It has ratcheted up its visibility in recent months, and this week has installed signs throughout the area seeking support.

The BPW, meanwhile, is facing a state order to repair or remove the dam or face fines. Although it made no decisions Tuesday, the board has held firm to a 2008 vote to breach the dam.

"There is a lot of potential if we partner," said Dee Boyle-Clapp, who helped found the Friends along with her husband, John Clapp.

The Clapps say that they have support from a cross-section of residents, as well as from legislators and grant-issuing organizations. Nearly all of those supporters, however, have indicated they would like to see restoration plans backed by the BPW before they'll move forward, said Boyle-Clapp.

The board remained skeptical that the Friends can raise the money. Chairman Terry Culhane noted that the group has had a year to raise the money and hasn't done it. In a testy exchange, he countered a contention from John Clapp that the Friends had met its financial obligations, as discussed at a meeting earlier this year with Mayor Clare Higgins.

Culhane said the group must raise $625,000, whereas Clapp said the understanding was that the Friends needed to raise $25,000 - the difference between removing and repairing the dam - and show that the remaining $600,000 for 50 years of maintenance could be raised by the proceeds from power generation.

"You have changed the numbers," Culhane said.

Including the long-term maintenance that involves dredging the site, the total dam repair cost is estimated at $1.825 million, compared to about $1.2 million to remove the dam. The Clapps question the need for immediate dredging, given that the city is not using the reservoir as a water supply and that it hasn't been done in 70 years.

The Friends believe that installing hydropower units at the dam would generate, conservatively, $1 million over five decades, based on estimates from a consultant the group has hired, said John Clapp.

"This is a small dam, but if it's paid for, we view this as a model for other dams on the Mill River," he said.

Those are figures consultants for the city have disagreed with in the past, and city engineer Jim Laurila questioned the rationale behind a project that has a payback, optimistically, of 30 years but is more likely to take as long as six to seven decades. Besides that, it would cost another pile of money to install the hydropower units.

"This is clearly not a project that's feasible in and of itself, not to mention the cost to repair the dam," said Laurila.

The Friends counter that they would raise the money to pay for the micro-hydropower installation at no cost to the city.

"Whatever it makes is a gift to them," Clapp said. "In the long run this is a win-win for us and the DPW."

The Clapps also note that plans for hydropower fit in with the city's Sustainable Northampton Plan, which calls for hydropower on the Mill River and its tributaries.

A 'high hazard'

The dam was built in 1883 following a deadly flood on the Mill River, and was originally known as Hoxie Dam. The granite-block structure created a reservoir that for a time served as the city's water supply. Now it is listed on the state's "high hazard" list and as being in poor condition. "High hazard" means that if the dam fails, there is the potential for loss of life or damage to property or infrastructure; however, city officials have said they do not believe anyone is in imminent danger.

The BPW, following recommendations from engineering consultants who believe that repairing the dam is not cost-effective and that hydropower isn't financially feasible, decided in 2008 to remove the dam. That decision has been put on hold - thanks to extensions from the state Office of Dam Safety - to give the residents time to raise the money needed to save the dam.

The board now has until Sept. 30 to inform the state that it intends to tear down the dam or make repairs, or it could ask for another six-month extension.

A consultant at Tuesday's meeting who has worked with the Friends in the past and is an expert in hydropower encouraged the board to consider taking the necessary steps to convince the state to remove the dam's "high hazard" classification in favor of a less stringent "significant" hazard.

This would lower the repair threshold and, in turn, the costs to bring the dam into compliance, argued Fred Szufnarowski, of The Essex Partnership of Ivoryton, Conn.

"If the dam is reclassified, we could remediate with shovels and backhoes," he said.

It would also make a difference in ongoing maintenance, with inspections required every five years instead of every two, said Dee Boyle-Clapp.

The city's consultant, Chad Cox of GZA GeoEnvironmental of Norwood, said that the Office of Dam Safety is "extremely reluctant" to reduce the classification of a dam it considers high hazard. Even if it succeeded in that effort, the dam would still need significant repairs.

"The city is stuck with a high-hazard dam there," Cox said.

Chad Cain can be reached at ccain@gazettenet.com.