Ft. Meadow Reservoir Lake Begins Drawdown

The City of Marlborough and Town of Hudson will begin a drawdown of Fort Meadow Reservoir on Thursday, Oct. 15.

It was announced that the drawdown will result in a four-foot drop from the normal high water level of the reservoir. Approximately 15-20 days are needed to draw the reservoir down four feet (weather permitting), which translates into a daily drop of about 2-3 inches. Once the 4-foot drop is reached, the lake level will be kept down through the winter and will begin refilling on or before March 1, 2016.

The purpose of this year’s draw down is to allow for:

• Weed Control
• Control of the Asian Clam
• Removal of accumulated sand from storm drains
• Repairs of walls and beaches

From Marlborough’s city offices:

Each of these activities is described in more detail below; permits are needed for some of these activities so please read carefully:

Weed control - Residents may wish to take advantage of the drawdown to manually remove weeds from the drawdown area. No permit is needed. The weeds collected should be disposed outside the lake in a manner which will prevent them from washing back into the water or decomposing on the beach and leaching nutrients back into the water. If we have a good hard freeze and no snow cover for a few days this will kill the weed roots that are exposed. We hope this will help control some of the remaining invasive weeds that remained after the spot treatment this year. Problem weeds this year are Eurasian and variable water milfoil and Fanwort.

Asian clam control – The past drawdowns seem to be having an impact on the Asian Clam (corbicula fluminea) population introduced a while ago. The good news is that this clam is at the northern boundary of its range and seems to be keeping itself in check and not reproducing as fast as predicted. Our hope is that the drawdown will freeze the clams that are exposed and keep their abundance in check. They live an inch or two below the sand layer and will not survive a freeze.

Removal of sand from drainage pipes- The Marlborough Department of Public Works, Street Division will be inspecting the street drainage pipes that enter the lake throughout the drawdown period, however should you notice any issues and/or potential problem areas during the drawdown period please report them to Tom Temple, Assistant Commissioner of Operations at (508) 624-6910 ext. 7200.

Minor repairs of walls and beaches- Residents are encouraged to do repairs to your walls, add sand to beaches, etc., while the water level is down, however you will need a permit for this work. You can obtain a permit for this work from your local Conservation Commission. A generic Order of Conditions, a Wetlands Protection Act Permit, covers minor maintenance such as placement of new sand or repairing of existing retaining walls along the shoreline. Any new construction or expansion of a wall will require a new permit from the Conservation Commission. To apply for either the generic permit or a new permit, or if you have questions, please contact your Conservation Commission to obtain the necessary forms. You can reach the Marlborough Conservation Commission at 508-460-3768. Hudson residents can contact the Hudson Conservation Commission at 978-562-2020.

As in the past, since residents are not to put permanent structures on the land under the water you are required to remove your docks from the water for the winter. We will be refilling the reservoir in March during a time when there maybe ice cover. When the water rises during refilling this will damage your docks

If you have any additional question, please contact the Ft. Meadow Commission Lee Thomson at 508-481-0590 or the Marlborough Conservation Commission at 508-460-3768 or Hudson Conservation Commissions at 978-562-2020.