Talbot Mills Dam

The Talbot Mills Dam, located on the Concord River in Billerica, is approximately 127 feet long and 10 feet high and was first built in 1711. The Concord River is part of the 399-square mile Sudbury-Assabet-Concord (SuAsCo) watershed, that runs northward from the headwaters of the Assabet and Sudbury rivers in Westborough to Concord where they join to form the Concord River, which then joins the Merrimack River in Lowell. From there the Merrimack flows northeast into the Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Maine in Newburyport and Salisbury, Massachusetts. 

The Talbot Mills Dam has a long and controversial past. Prior to its existence, the area was used extensively by Native Americans as fertile fishing grounds and as an important transportation route. The dam was first built for power supply and fire protection for the adjacent mill buildings. It later diverted water into the Middlesex Canal that connected Lowell to Boston using the water of the Concord River starting in 1803. Once built, the dam was believed to cause flooding for upstream farmers resulting in legal disputes and the dam being removed and rebuilt multiple times over nearly 150 years. The current dam was built in 1828 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The dam now blocks the river that once sustained Native American populations with plentiful supplies of river herring and shad, preventing fish and other wildlife from migrating between the upper sections of the SuAsCo watershed and the Merrimack River and ocean.

In partnership with multiple state and federal agencies and local NGOs, the owner of the Talbot Mills Dam is seeking removal as the best solution to restore fish passage to the SuAsCo watershed, decommission aging infrastructure, eliminate ongoing maintenance and repair obligations, reduce upstream and downstream flood hazards, and improve water quality, aquatic habitat, and natural riverine processes. Throughout the dam’s history, it has caught the attention of past state and federal agencies and even Henry David Thoreau who spent years studying the river, the dam, and its impacts.

Benefits of dam removal

While the dam played an important role in the Industrial Revolution, it no longer serves that purpose and the many benefits of removal have come to outweigh the costs.

Fish Passage

The dam is a major barrier to fish passage, and removal will provide an unprecedented amount of habitat for five main species: alewife and blueback herring (commonly referred to together as “river herring”), American eel, American shad, and sea lamprey. All of these species are diadromous, which means they carry out part of their life in the ocean, and part in rivers and lakes in order to survive.

sea lamprey

The Talbot Mills Dam currently blocks these species from 35 miles of mainstem rivers, 100 miles of tributaries, and 260 acres of lakes and ponds. Removing the dam would reconnect these rivers with the ocean. It is not just migratory and local fish who will benefit from being able to move up and downstream–all species who utilize the river benefit by being able to move freely. Turtles, otters, muskrats, beavers and many more species will benefit by accessing more habitat above and below the existing dam. Additionally, migratory fish like river herring and shad are an important component  of the larger food web. Restoring the spawning habitat of these migratory fishes will not only help their populations to recover and increase resilience to climate change,  it will also support many other species of fishes, mammals, and birds in the rivers and oceans that depend on them as a food source. This in turn will support both commercial and sports fisheries in the rivers and the Gulf of Maine.

Blanding’s turtle

Progress So far

While the Talbot Mills Dam removal project is just gaining new attention, this effort has been ongoing for decades. Multiple studies have been completed on the dam itself, as well as on the water quality and river health, fish populations near the dam, and impact on water supply infrastructure. This work has been funded by the Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump Superfund Site Natural Resource Damages (NRD) Trustee Council (comprising the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, represented by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)), the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) Priority Project Program (selected as a Priority Project in Dec. 2021), DER’s Regional Partnerships Program, Massachusetts Environmental Trust, the Fuller Foundation and the National Park Services’ Wild & Scenic Rivers Program.

Here is a brief history of the studies that have been completed to date:

Regulatory Review

The project review process commenced with the filing of an Environmental Notification Form (ENF) under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). The state-level MEPA process is for information-gathering, to check that all relevant environmental information is in hand before any permitting processes begins. Ecological Restoration Projects, such as the Talbot Mills Dam removal project, are eligible for a MEPA review process and may be exempt from the requirement to file an ENF or Environmental Impact Report (EIR). However, the project proponents proactively submitted an Expanded ENF (EENF) for the project to provide a formal opportunity for public review and comment prior to initiating permitting, which resulted in the requirement to subsequently file a Single Environmental Impact Report (SEIR).

“The MEPA review process provides meaningful opportunities for public review of potential environmental impacts of certain projects for which certain actions by state agencies are required. It requires state agencies to study the environmental impacts of projects requiring state permitting, financial assistance or land disposition, and to use all feasible measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate damage to the environment or, to the extent damage to the environment cannot be avoided, to minimize and mitigate damage to the environment to the maximum extent practicable.”

The ENF was filed with MEPA on June 23, 2023 and published in the Environmental Monitor on July 10, 2023. A public consultation and site visit were held by MEPA on July 19 and July 27 respectively. Slides and handouts from the meetings are available at the links below. A Secretary’s Certificate was issued following the review of the ENF on September 1, 2023.

A Single Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) was filed with MEPA on Feb. 15, 2024, and published in the Environmental Monitor on February 23, 2024. The SEIR includes more detailed project plans, answers the questions in the Secretary’s Certificate, and responds to the comments submitted by the public and others. There is a thirty-day public comment period, and comments are due by March 25, 2024. Go to:  Environmental Monitor, select the New Projects tab and the Environmental Impact Reports subtab and scroll down to EEA No. 16731, Talbots Mills Dam Removal, BILLERICA. A Certificate on the SEIR is anticipated to be issued on April 1, 2024. Deadlines may be extended – please check the Environmental Monitor which reflects all comment period extensions in real-time.

Public Meetings

Several public meetings, workshops, and other events will occur throughout the project where you can learn more and get involved. The meetings that have occurred so far are:

• • • • August 7, 2014: The project team held a public information session. The session was held in-person and no recording is available.
      • February 23, 2016: The project team held a public meeting. The meeting was held in-person and no recording is available.
      • May 15, 2022: Members of the project team presented to the Middlesex Canal Association. Watch the recording here.
      • June 29, 2022: The project team held a public meeting about the Talbot Mills Dam removal. Watch the recording here.
      • April 10, 2023: Members of the project team gave an informational presentation to the Billerica Planning Board.
      • April 12, 2023: Members of the project team gave an informal presentation to the Billerica Conservation Commission.
      • April and May, 2023: OARS, one of the project leads, made informal presentations to various community groups in and around Billerica. Additional meetings and events will be held throughout the project. Sign up for email updates below to be notified when a meeting is upcoming or click the link to see if there are any upcoming events scheduled for this project.
      • July 19, 2023 at 5:30 PM. MEPA held a remote consultation. View the meeting slides here.
      • July 27, 2023 at 11 AM. MEPA held a site visit at the dam. View the handout here.

In the News

A variety of news outlets have reported on Talbot Mills over the years. Read a few recent articles below.

• May 16, 2023 – Town officials, conservation groups disagree on fate of Talbot Mills Dam
• September 15, 2022 – Removing dams restores river ecology, here’s how Massachusetts is stepping up
• August 12, 2022 – LTC Covers The Merrimack and Concord Rivers – Talbot Mills Dam Removal Project
• June 29, 2022 – Historic Talbot Mills dam meeting hears public concerns in Billerica
• June 27, 2022 – Talbot Mills Dam removal in Billerica would return Concord River flow, fish populations
• June 26, 2022 – The Five Minute Read. Dams, roads, polls and drone news
• June 21, 2022 – Fishing for a dam change at Talbot Mills dam in Billerica
• March 13, 2016 – It’s historic water over the Talbot Dam
  

Still have Questions?

1. Read our full FAQ document which is updated regularly. If you don’t find your questions there, submit yours to be answered in the next update!

2. Visit our StoryMap, a tool to view information about the project in a visual and accessible way.

3. Reach out to any of the contacts below about the project and information posted here:

• Matt Brown, OARS: mbrown@oars3rivers.org
• Eric Hutchins, NOAA: eric.hutchins@noaa.gov
• Jane Calvin, Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust: jcalvin@lowelllandtrust.org

The development of this webpage was funded in part by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust. For more information, please visit www.mass.gov/eea/met