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Date: 12/21/2022
SOUTHWICK – Federal authorities will fund a study on dredging two brooks that serve as outlets of Congamond Lake, the Lake Management Committee learned this month.
At a Dec. 8 meeting, committee Chair Dick Grannells told his colleagues that he planned to meet with the consultant this month to explore the costs and processes needed to dredge Great Brook and Canal Brook.
Grannells said that both Great Brook and Canal Brook are clogged with debris, including hundreds of trees that fell during the 2011 ice storm. Grannells had been in discussions with the federal Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS) for more than a year before they gave the green light this past spring to begin the study.
Each of the two brooks historically served as outlets for Congamond Lake, but are so severely blocked that debris and organic matter are flowing back into the lake. Grannells said the clogs extend 2.5 miles down Canal Brook and about 4 miles down Great Brook.
Grannells has stated in the past that the design, permitting and physical work will be done by the NRCS using federal funds, and will cost the town nothing. In 2018, under vastly different economic circumstances, Southwick had explored a similar project with a federal agency where the estimated cost to dredge both brooks was $7 million.