Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/28/2021
WESTFIELD – The Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) performed an annual inspection of the Little River Levee on April 21, meeting members of the Flood Control Commission, Conservation, Department of Public Works and city councilors at the site.
Flood Control Commission (FCC) chairman Albert G. Giguere, Jr. said the inspection would likely fail to meet the ACE standards again this year, considering the levee has suffered additional erosion.
Giguere said the big problem is two culverts under the levee intended to prevent backflow from the river flooding the neighborhood are corroded and need to be replaced. “The bottom of the culverts is rotted out,” he said. Giguere said they discovered the deterioration on the culverts four years ago.
Giguere said the city has a local cooperation agreement with the ACE, which built the levee in 1955 and rebuilt it after a flood in 1983 when the section collapsed, to maintain the levee to a certain standard, which has not been achieved.
Currently, the commission is looking to take down seven mostly dead trees on the levee and clear debris in order to prepare for that work to be done. He said one tree fell during a storm on Dec. 25, root ball and all, causing about 5 more feet of erosion on the river side of the levee. A Notice of Intent (NOI) prepared by Tighe and Bond for the tree clearing will be going to the Conservation Commission.
Flood Control has also asked the mayor for an appropriation of $120,000 to purchase six private parcels of private land along the Little River Levee upstream to approximately Amelia Park, to prepare for reconstruction work. “The levee has to get fixed; we all know it. God forbid, we have a serious flood, and the levee fails,” Giguere said, adding that he isn’t confident the levee would sustain a major storm.
“Hopefully time is on our side, we get the money we need, and start rehabilitation of the two culverts. We’re trying to correct multiple decades of deferred maintenance,” Giguere said.
The Little River Levee is only one of several projects being overseen by the FCC. For the last several years, the FCC has also been working with the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on analysis and recommendations for rehabilitation of the Powder Mill and Armbrook dams.
Giguere said the NRCS recommendations will bring the dams up to safety and performance standards and have them last for another 50 years. If authorized, the bulk of the work, 65 percent, will be paid for by federal funds; however, the city will also have to contribute. “It’s not easy to do, with $5 to 6 million needed between the two projects,” he said.
At the FCC meeting that evening, Giguere read with emotion the resignation letters of two decades-long members of the Flood Control Commission, Henry Warchol and Barry H. Plumley, whom he referred to as his mentors.
“For decades I have been proud to serve on this important commission. One of the highlights of my life,” wrote Warchol, adding that water issues were a lifelong interest of his. “Together we have accomplished a great deal. It is my hope a new generation will heed the call,” he wrote.
“This is a hard message for me to write, but it’s time for me to resign and let someone younger get involved,” wrote Plumley, adding that Giguere was doing such a good job as chairman.
Giguere said Plumley was vice chair of the commission for quite a while. “We went on many a trip – took one to Boston even. Both of these gentlemen have paid their dues on this commission. Without their support, I couldn’t have done anything these last few years,” he said.