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Watershops Pond drawdown reveals submerged cars, more
Updated Nov 04, 2:11 PM; Posted Nov 04, 11:22 AM
D11/4/2020 - While repairing the dam at Watershops Pond, the city has had to lower the water level. Aerial photos of the pond and Lake Massasoit show the impact on the drawdown. Here several submerged motor vehicles have re-emerged. In the background is Springfield College.
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By
Peter Goonan | [email protected]
SPRINGFIELD — The ongoing drawdown of Watershops Pond ahead of a major flood control project has unveiled a plethora of junk ranging from six cars to an assortment of guns, bikes, a safe, and at least one pair of high heel shoes.
Neighborhood residents, some armed with cell phone cameras and metal detectors, have been exploring along the large pond and its thick mud shores as the temporary drawdown continues. The lowering of the water began Oct. 26, and is expected to be completed by the end of this week.
It will be followed by an estimated $3 million flood control project, likely to begin in March of 2021, involving repairs and improvements to the dam. The dam is rated as a high-hazard flood potential for the South End, officials said.
Local officials including Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal,
toured the dam site last week.
D11/4/2020 - While repairing the dam at Watershops Pond, the city has had to lower the water level. Aerial photos of the pond and Lake Massasoit show the impact on the drawdown. This photo shows the Roosevelt Avenue Bridge facing west toward Springfield College.
“I’m excited by the project,” said Ellen Moorhouse, who abuts the pond on the other end on Undine Circle in Sixteen Acres. “It’s good for the city. It’s good for the water. As a neighbor, it makes me happy.”
She posted many of the photos she took along the pond on her Facebook Page.
The junk includes the cars, two guns, bicycles, tires, a telephone, the safe, a large metal picnic table, the metal shell of a portable typewriter, seashells, and the shoes. There is also an aluminum boat among much other junk and debris.
One of the guns was severely rusted and deteriorated, but one bore a serial number and was turned over to police, Moorhouse said.
The city and residents are planning a major cleanup not yet scheduled but likely to include a neighborhood cleanup next Arbor Day in spring of 2021.
“There’s definitely a lot of trash,” Moorhouse said.
There could be a lot of debris in the pond from the tornado of 2011, said Peter Garvey, the city’s director of capital asset construction, and Patrick J. Sullivan, the director of parks, buildings and recreation management.
Springfield historians will vouch that this is not the first time a submerged vehicle has been found in Watershops Pond.
In 1941, the pond was drained to allow the installation of new piers, and workers found a car containing the bodies of David and Alicia Lee, and their three children, who had been reported missing without a trace 10 years earlier.
Their disappearance touched off a nationwide search that ended without any sign for where they went. Until April 1941 when the pond was drained.
With the discovery of their car, it was assumed the family was driving down Eastern Avenue at night, missed the turn at Hickory Street and when straight into the water.
The city will do an inventory of the junk and debris and come up with a plan, Garvey said.
The six cars are not a surprise for city officials: the cars were seen during an underwater sonar scan of the pond last spring, officials said. The pond is also known as Lake Massasoit.
The drawdown of Watershops Pond in Springfield has unveiled junk including a gun. (Ellen Moorhouse photo)
Parks Department employees are gradually lowering the level of the pond by opening the gate valves in stages until fully open to help provide safe access for the dam repairs, Sullivan said.
Signs will be posted along the pond, warning people not to cross in the area due to the thick mud and an active stream, Sullivan said.
“We don’t want people getting hurt,” Sullivan said.
The last time there was a full drawdown was in 1995-96, Sullivan said.
The project includes $2 million in federal funds under the National Disaster Resilience Competition grant program, and approximately $1 million in city funds, officials said.
The Watershops Pond Dam in a concrete and masonry gravity dam owned by the city, and dating to 1824, according to the National Inventory of Dams.
Ward 7 City Councilor Timothy Allen said he is “thrilled” by the upcoming dam repairs and cleanup, saying it is a great chance to “update the area and clean the lake at the same time.”
“I think it’s an opportunity to restore the lake to some of its former beauty,” Allen said.
The drawdown of Watershops Pond in Springfield has unveiled junk including high heel shoes. (Ellen Moorhouse photo)
D11/4/2020 - While repairing the dam at Watershops Pond, the city has had to lower the water level. Aerial photos of the pond and Lake Massasoit show the impact on the drawdown. Lake Massasoit, along Alden Street by Springfield College, has reduced to acres of mud.
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