Lake Watatic Dam · Owned by the Town of Ashburnham, Massachusetts

Save Lake Watatic—and protect communities downstream.

Lake Watatic is not just for the people who live on its shore. The public can swim and launch hand-carried small boats at Broadhurst Point, protected by the Ashburnham Conservation Trust. But the Town-owned dam has failed before: a hurricane washed it out in 1938 and the lake drained. Engineers now warn that another failure could also take out the dam at Lower Naukeag Lake in sequence. We are building a coalition of residents, lake visitors, and downstream neighbors to get the dam repaired.

What we are asking for Why this matters to everyone
18%
how much of the worst storm the state says this dam must survive the spillway can actually handle
3.2 ft
of water would go over the top of the dam in that storm
$3.01M
engineer's all-in estimate to repair it
2029
earliest year the work is finished, if design starts this fall

A public lake · A connected watershed

This is bigger than lakefront property.

Broadhurst Point gives the public a place to swim and launch hand-carried small boats on Lake Watatic. Saving the lake preserves that community access as well as the homes, habitat, and history around it.

A dam failure would not stop at our shoreline. GZA's 2009 breach analysis found that a failure here during the design storm “may likely” cause the downstream Lower Naukeag dam to fail in sequence. The 2011 emergency plan concluded that a Lake Watatic Dam failure would likely cost lives. Repairing this dam protects people, roads, bridges, and water bodies throughout the connected watershed.

Tighe & Bond · Phase I inspection · April 2024

What the engineers found.

The Town must have the dam inspected every five years. The 2024 report rated it Fair and listed fifteen deficiencies, every one of which was also in the 2022 report. Three of them matter most.

Spillway

It is far too small.

The 40-foot spillway can pass about 1,450 cubic feet per second. The flood the state requires a dam above homes to pass sends 7,900. In that storm the lake rises 3.2 feet above the top of the dam. An earthen dam that overtops usually fails within hours. That is what happened in 1938.

Report: "hydraulically inadequate"

Embankment

Water is moving through it.

Inspectors found seepage with iron staining at the downstream toe next to the outlet pipe, a wet area at the other end, and a downstream slope steeper than dam-engineering practice allows. No one has ever run a stability analysis on this dam.

Seepage: "uncontrolled"

Outlet

The emergency controls may not work.

The gate valve that lets the Town lower the lake ahead of a storm has a bent stem and a broken bracket. The engineers do not know if it can be opened. The only way down to it is a ladder made of bent rebar.

Outlet: "inoperative, needs repair"

Cross-section of Lake Watatic Dam with water levels The embankment crest is at elevation 1132.0 feet. Normal pool is at 1128.0. The worst storm the state requires the dam to survive would raise the lake to 1135.2, which is 3.2 feet above the crest. WORST STORM IT MUST SURVIVE · EL 1135.2 3.2 ft over the top TOP OF DAM · EL 1132.0 NORMAL POOL · EL 1128.0 LAKE WATATIC · 150 ACRES MILLERS RIVER · EL 1113 CONCRETE CORE WALL EARTH EMBANKMENT 300 FT LONG · 20 FT HIGH · BUILT 1954–55 24-IN LOW-LEVEL OUTLET · GATE MAY NOT WORK LEDGE
Cross-section of the dam, drawn from the elevations in the 2024 inspection report. Vertical scale exaggerated 2.5×. The spillway at the left abutment is not shown.
A narrow concrete walkway with no railings leading out over the lake to the low-level outlet structure
The walk to the outlet controls. No handrails. The staff gauge is damaged and hard to read.
Looking down inside the concrete intake structure at a ladder made of bent rebar
The ladder to the gate valve. Bent rebar. The report says it "may not be safe to use."
The downstream end of the outlet pipe in a pool of water, with labels A, B, and C marking a crack, undermined concrete, and rust-colored seepage
Below the dam. A: a crack in the outlet pipe. B: undermined concrete. C: seepage coming out of the embankment.

One failure could become two.

Several homes, two bridges, and Lower Naukeag Lake lie downstream. The state already rates the Lower Naukeag dam High hazard. GZA's 2009 breach analysis found that a Lake Watatic Dam failure in the design storm "may likely" take out that dam in sequence, and its 2011 emergency plan concluded a failure would likely cost lives. This is why Lower Naukeag residents and other downstream neighbors belong in the coalition to save Lake Watatic.

Tighe & Bond estimate · 2024

What it costs, and who pays.

The engineers' all-in estimate is $3.01 million: a bigger spillway, a rebuilt outlet, a regraded slope, and drains, plus design, permitting, and contingencies. The first step is design and permitting. GZA GeoEnvironmental offered to do all of it for a fixed $392,100 in August 2025, including the state grant application. There is also $124,000 of short-range work, mostly tree removal and studies, that the Department of Public Works can start now.

Massachusetts pays for dam work in towns that ask. It put $1.865 million into removing the Whitney Pond dam in Ashburnham. The programs that fit a repair:

  • State Dam and Seawall grants: up to $250,000 for design and $1,000,000 for construction, with a 10% local match. Applications are due each March.
  • Mass Ready Act earmark: the state bond bill carries named local projects. Rep. Zlotnik and Sen. Durant can file one.
  • FEMA mitigation grants: 75% federal share for overtopping protection and spillway upgrades.
  • Town borrowing for the remainder, outside the levy limit, by vote of Town Meeting and the ballot.

Full cost breakdown and all eight funding programs →

The ask · Fall 2026

Fund the design at the fall Special Town Meeting.

The Town cannot apply for construction money without a stamped design and permits. Everything waits on that. So we are asking for four specific things this fall.

Latest community update: Lake association members met with the new Town Administrator in June. According to an update shared with us, he intends to pursue another grant for permitting. That is encouraging, but it is not yet a published Town decision or schedule.

  1. The Town publicly confirms the grant program and application date, and the Select Board signs the GZA design and permitting contract or starts a re-bid.
  2. Town Meeting funds it this fall, along with the $124,000 of short-range work.
  3. The Town secures easements from the abutters by the end of the year. The 2016 repair died on property rights, and the state will not take an application without them.
  4. The Town applies at the next available round for a state design and permitting grant, with a clear plan for the required local share.

What you can do this week

Send this to the Select Board and the Town Administrator. Change it however you like. A short note from a resident counts more than a long one from a group. Then come to a Select Board meeting, first and third Mondays at 6:30 pm in the Public Safety Building, and ask the same question in person.

To the Select Board and Town Administrator,

I live at [address] in Ashburnham. I am writing about the Lake Watatic Dam, which the Town owns.

The Town's own 2024 inspection found the spillway can pass about 18 percent of the flood it is required to pass, that water is seeping through the embankment, and that the outlet gate may not work. The same problems have appeared in every report since 2009. The dam failed once, in 1938, and the lake drained.

Lake Watatic also has public swimming and small-boat access at Broadhurst Point. GZA's breach analysis found that a failure here during the design storm may cause the downstream Lower Naukeag dam to fail in sequence. Repairing this dam protects a public lake and the communities below it.

GZA GeoEnvironmental sent the Town a $392,100 proposal in August 2025 to complete design and permitting and to write the state grant application. I am asking the Board to:

1. Confirm publicly which permitting grant the Town plans to pursue and the application deadline.
2. Explain whether the Town will negotiate the GZA proposal or issue a new request for proposals, and publish a schedule for that decision.
3. Place an article on the fall Special Town Meeting warrant for the required local funding and the $124,000 in short-range repairs the 2024 report recommends.
4. Begin securing easements from the abutters now, so the Town is eligible for state construction funding once design and permits are complete.

I would like a response, and I plan to attend the next Select Board meeting to ask about it.

Thank you,
[name]
[address]
Open in email

More ways to push, and who to write to →

Stay in the loop

Join the coalition to save Lake Watatic.

Whether you live on the lake, use its public access, or live downstream, we need you. Get an email about meetings, votes, petitions, and news from the Town. A few emails a month at most. No sharing, no selling.

Sources

Read what we read.

  1. Phase I Inspection / Evaluation Report, Lake Watatic Dam, Tighe & Bond for the Town of Ashburnham, April 16, 2024. PDF
  2. Proposal for Dam Safety Engineering Services, Lake Watatic Dam, GZA GeoEnvironmental to the Town of Ashburnham, August 22, 2025. PDF
  3. Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Program, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
  4. 302 CMR 10.00, Massachusetts Dam Safety regulations, including 10.13 on owner liability.
  5. Removal of Whitney Pond Dam in Ashburnham, Mass.gov, and the Nashua River Watershed Association project page listing $1,865,000 in awards.
  6. Ashburnham Conservation Trust, which protects Broadhurst Point and provides public access for passive recreation.
  7. The full list, including the paper trail back to 2001, is on the details page.