SOfficials Tour Ellis Pond Dam and Meadow Brook Sites-August 22, 1984

State and municipal leaders converged on Norwood yesterday for an on-site inspection of the Ellis Pond Dam and the Meadow Brook drainage area, paving the way for long-awaited flood-prevention improvements backed by $850,000 in recently secured state funding. John J. Hannon, director of the state Division of Waterways, led the walking tour across the earthen dam controlling Ellis Pond, accompanied by State Representative Gregory Sullivan (D-Norwood), Town Manager John J. Carroll, Board of Selectmen members, and conservation commission representatives.

The dam has remained a critical priority since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warned four years prior that the structure might lack the structural integrity to withstand outflow during severe rainstorms. “If the dam were to let go… there could be extensive damage to Walpole Street below,” Town Manager Carroll cautioned. To eliminate that risk, the state allocated $450,000 from the newly approved legislative budget to cover design consultation and reconstruction. Hannon explained that rebuilding the dam will likely involve constructing a new concrete-reinforced earth structure equipped with two concrete sluiceways draining into Hawes Brook, a tributary of the Neponset River. Once final designs are completed and construction bids awarded, physical work could commence within a year and reach completion in eight to nine months.

Meadow Brook Drainage Overhaul Faces Complex, Multi-Year Timeline

While the dam project carries a swift timeline, addressing chronic flooding and sewage backups in the Meadow Brook watershed is a far more complex and costly undertaking. The state has appropriated $400,000 to fund initial engineering consulting studies for Meadow Brook, but a preliminary study by Lexington engineering firm Fay, Spofford and Thorndike estimated total construction costs could soar as high as $4 million.

Hannon noted that the project could take anywhere from three to ten years to finalize, depending on annual state appropriations competing against other regional waterways initiatives. However, he emphasized that Norwood’s project holds high priority: “This is an important project due to the nature of the flooding and the prominence of the town. There are many significant people in the town, which had some bearing [in the appropriations].”

The expansive 933-acre Meadow Brook watershed covers 14 percent of Norwood’s land area—including the town center and heavily developed commercial zones extending from Neponset Street near Dean Street to Prospect Street near the Oldham School. Heavy downpours regularly overwhelm the already burdened sewer system, causing stormwater infiltration and severe sewage backups. During major storms in 1978 and 1979, floodwaters inundated land behind the police station and surged four feet deep inside the station itself, creating what Carroll described as “almost catastrophic problems… in a very short time.”

Proposed engineering solutions for the watershed include constructing water-retention basins—with Keohane’s Field under consideration as a potential site—and expanding the underground concrete conduit that carries Meadow Brook from Pleasant Street toward the police station neighborhood. (Reporting by Paul Karon, The Patriot Ledger).

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger