Remove obsolete dams

Overview
Dam removal improves public safety and community resilience to climate change. Extreme floods threaten dams and the roads, buildings, utilities that surround them. Under Massachusetts state law, dam owners can be held liable for injury or damage caused by the dam. When performed in a controlled manner, dam removal reduces hazards to upstream and downstream resources.

Why remove dams?
There is a growing movement to remove dams where the ecological and safety benefits of removing the dam outweigh the costs to the dam owner, community, and river ecosystem. Under Massachusetts dam safety laws, dam owners bear the cost and responsibility for maintaining their dam in a safe condition. Dam owners are also liable for property damage or injury resulting from the dam. Many dam owners pursue dam removal in order to eliminate the public safety hazard, maintenance costs, and liability.

Dams create artificial habitat by impounding water and altering river function. These impoundments trap sediment and create stagnant conditions with warmer water and lower dissolved oxygen than the rest of the river system. Dams also block the movement of fish that need to access different areas of the watershed and different habitats during their life cycle. With more than 3,000 dams in Massachusetts, there is an abundance of pond habitat and a lack of free-flowing river habitat.

Removing an unwanted dam restores river habitat and allows fish and wildlife to access crucial river habitats when needed throughout their life cycle. As the climate changes, river habitat condition will change, too, and fish and wildlife movements may change in response. Removing dams will allow fish and wildlife to access the habitats they need as conditions change. As a bonus, the removal of aging dams can protect public safety as well as reduce owner liability.

Interested in removing a dam?
For the last 10 years, the MA Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) has been working with agencies, non-governmental organizations, and dam owners to remove unwanted dams and restore rivers. By working together, dam owners and partners have removed 40 dams to date and have 30 dam removal projects in the planning stages.
Are you interested in removing a dam? DER is eager to provide technical assistance to dam owners and others interested in river and stream restoration. Please see the Dam Removal Resources Page for a starting point. To learn more about restoring rivers through dam removal, contact Beth Lambert, Ecological Restoration Program Manager, at 617-626-1526 or beth.lambert at state.ma.us.