Photo By Linnea Shirley | The water has receded at Ball Mountain, but cleanup is still underway. Photo taken...... read more read more
Torrential downpours in mid-July 2023 inundated New England with massive amounts of rainfall. The water levels, particularly in Vermont and New Hampshire, rose behind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) dams in the Upper Connecticut River Basin.
During this storm USACE dams in the Upper Connecticut River Basin in Vermont and New Hampshire collectively stored 60 billion gallons of storm water, which is equivalent to 91,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. This large amount of water helped mitigate downstream flooding.
When the storms began on July 10, 2023, the New England District’s Operations Center in Concord, Massachusetts stood up and provided a central location for information sharing among the District’s technical experts to include personnel from Emergency Management, Engineering, Operations and Public Affairs. Team members also coordinated with relevant state and federal agencies, to include the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 1, National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices as well as the NWS Northeast River Forecast Center.
As a result of rising reservoir levels, all recreation areas in the Upper Connecticut River Basin were closed to the public, with Ball Mountain evacuating campers from its popular Winhall Brook Campground.
“We did sustain some flooding at each project, but Townshend and Ball Mountain were impacted the most,” said John Asseng, Operations Officer, Upper Connecticut River Basin.
On July 11, 2023, the Reservoir Control Center in Concord, Massachusetts, assessed the status of the floodwaters and determined the Connecticut River was able to accept additional water. To provide space for the reservoirs to hold the additional rain expected, around 10 p.m., the Ball Mountain Dam team began slowly increasing the water being released from its reservoirs. The team at Townshend Dam released slow flows just before 1 a.m. on July 12, 2023.
During the flooding, team members at Ball Mountain, Townshend, North Springfield, Union Village, and North Hartland worked around the clock monitoring pool levels and downstream conditions. Team members at the other Upper Connecticut River Basin dams did not have to staff around the clock but kept a close eye on the water levels.
Hopkinton Lake also felt the effects of the raging waters.
“During the July 2023 flood event, the maximum pool at Hopkinton Lake reached 396.72 feet mean sea level (m.s.l.), almost 17 feet above the normal summer pool,” said Park Ranger Samantha Schupp. “The storage capacity at this maximum pool was 23.4 percent full. During this flood event, the water flooded the Elm Brook Park beach, the three lower picnic shelters, the lower restroom, the athletic field, and the Stumpfield Boat Launch. Elm Brook Park and the Stumpfield Boat Launch were closed for several weeks.”
At Buffumville Lake, the team kept an eye on the rising waters.
“The pool at Buffumville rose to about 28 feet last year,” said Project Manager Nicole Giles. “Our regular pool is 11 feet.”
In addition to the flood fighting efforts done by teams at the USACE dams, FEMA activated the District’s debris and infrastructure missions during the flooding. Members of the team assessed three water treatment plants. At the state level, Vermont requested technical assistance, and District experts assisted with modeling support to predict future pool levels at state dams.
The New England District team continued to monitor the situation closely and took appropriate actions to ensure the safety of the public.
When the water finally receded, the impact the District’s dams and recreational areas in the Upper Connecticut River Basin could be seen everywhere.
Hopkinton Lake didn’t have structural damage, but the water left a big mess to clean up.
“When the flood waters receded, no damage to the facilities was observed; however, the picnic shelters and lower restroom had to be pressure washed and deep cleaned to remove silt, debris, and grime resulting from the flooding,” said Schupp. “Due to the athletic field being submerged for several weeks, the field needed to be aerated and overseeded in the fall of 2023. Further, several signs located at the Elm Brook Park beach were not recovered after the flooding and had to be replaced.”
Buffumville also didn’t have damages to the buildings, and Giles said that the cleanup wasn’t something she and her team couldn’t handle.
“I had to pump out the septic tanks in the park and the boat ramp toilet,” she said. “The damages were minimal. Just some flood debris pick up.”
The Winhall Brook Camping Area sustained a lot of damage, but a year later progress on the cleanup is ongoing.
“We have 75 sites completed. Repairs we have accomplished so far include removing plumbing, and removing trees and stumps,” said Asseng. “We’ve completed seeding and the grass is already starting to grow. We also completed silt removal, and this was a massive undertaking and the biggest part of the cleanup project. There was dirt everywhere.”
Asseng says there’s still a lot more work to do, including ditching and removing dead trees still standing which need to be removed if they pose a danger.
“The North Side still needs a lot of work,” he said. “The bathrooms need to be updated with new plumbing.”
No matter the weather, the New England District team is always ready for the next challenge.
| Date Taken: | 07.11.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.09.2024 08:39 |
| Story ID: | 478187 |
| Location: | CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 112 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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