Dredging Canal and Great brooks closer to happening with release of federal funds

SOUTHWICK — Federal funding targeted for the design and engineering of a proposed dredging project for Great and Canal brooks, which was clawed back by the federal Department of Government Efficiency in February, have been restored.

“Everything was going along fine,” said Richard Grannells, the chair of the town’s Lake Management Committee. “There was a contracted consultant in place and ready to sign the paperwork, but the money was taken away.”

However, Grannells learned last week the funding had been restored and a contract had been signed with the Holyoke-based Pare Corporation, whose engineers have already started surveying the areas involved to develop a plan to tackle what is sure to be an expensive project.

While Grannells was hesitant to offer an exact cost of dredging the two brooks, said it could be in excess of $10 million.

He said the survey of Canal Brook will be much easier than Great Brook.

Canal Brook was created in the 1830s as part of the New Haven and Northampton Canal project and Canal Brook, also known as the Farmington Canal, was where it connected to the South Pond of Congamond Lakes.

Because the canal is easily accessible, Grannells said that survey work will be completed first. He also said one of the members of the LMC has a boat dock very near where the canal meets the pond where the survey team can start.

Great Brook, on the other hand, will be difficult to survey because over the last 20 years or so, it has been clogged with overwhelming amounts of debris from fallen trees, beaver huts, and thick underbrush.

While it may appear that Canal and Great brook supply the water for the three Great Ponds — which is how the state defines them — they serve as outlets for the ponds’ water during heavy rains.

Now, however, both brooks feed into the ponds, which in turn, washes decades of sediments, nutrients into them, which is one of the LMC’s primary missions — the keep the ponds healthy.

In fact, the weir gate — which adjusts the levels of the ponds — under the bridge at 13 Berkshire Ave., has been permanently closed for years, Grannells said.

“If you opened that weir gate, it would rush all that sediment laden with all kinds of nutrients and nasty stuff,” Grannells said, adding that sediment from the swamps that surround portions of the South Pond do get around the gates.

Grannells can remember when Great Brook had a running stream that stretched from the weir gate at Berkshire Avenue all the way to Westfield.

However, because of the debris, and the hundreds of trees downed during the 2008 ice storm, the pond has literally disappeared.

“It went from a nice open pond into a defined stream and under Sheep Pasture Road, and then again until it connected to where Pearl Brook and eventually Johnson Brook all enter into Great Brook watershed,” Grannells said.

If funding for the dredging project is allocated, Grannells said it could extend all the way from Great Brook to the general area of Laro Road.

He added that some of the dredging could be done on the shore along the path of the brook, but there would also be areas along the stream where heavy machinery would need to go because of the lack of access.

On Sept. 12, Grannells and other town officials and those from Connecticut will meet remotely to discuss how the project will move forward.

Grannells also said the LMC is continuing to explore options to have the small cove just in front of the Middle Pond boat ramp dredged.

The LMC applied for a state grant pilot program last year to try and get it approved. As an incentive, the Community Preservation Committee approved an allocation of $100,000 of Community Preservation Act funds, which was approved the Town Meeting.

The water there is so shallow, boaters often have to push or row their power boats to deeper water.

There is also a remnant of a road in the cove that someone tried to install decades before.

Read the original article on MassLive .