Wayland has been awarded $1.40 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program toward completing the Snake Brook Dam Rehabilitation Project of the proposed construction cost of $2.537 million. Currently, all permitting requirements have been completed and the project is construction ready.
“With this funding, we will be able to move forward with the completion of the Snake Brook Dam Rehabilitation,” said Town Manager, Michael McCall. “This project is critical to improving the poor condition of the dam and preventing a failure, or potential hazard within our community. I would like to recognize Linda Hansen, Conservation director, for submitting our application and Sen. Edward Markey’s office, who provided assistance in securing this funding.”
Snake Brook Dam impounds 18 million gallons of water to form the Old Wayland Reservoir and is part of the Hamlen Woods Conservation Area located at 80–90 Rice Road. The current dam is an approximately 130-foot long, 25-foot-high earthen embankment dam with a bedrock channel in the right western abutment serving as a 10-foot-wide uncontrolled spillway.
Snake Brook runs along the southeastern boundary of Loker Elementary School, which is 0.4 mile downstream and 30 feet lower in elevation than the dam, before continuing to run under Route 30. Conservation Administrator Linda Hansen started applying for funding for repairs in 2017. The state had given the town a mandate for dam repairs by March 2024. The Conservation Department has applied eight times for grants to complete funding for the work. The total mitigation cost (design + construction + maintenance) estimate went from $1.9M (2022 Annual Town Meeting appropriated $900,000) to $2.96 million as of July 2024 from the engineering consultant Pare Corp.
The FEMA grant process was about 95% complete as of January 2025 but stalled at the federal level. The town went ahead and proceeded with a new construction bid as of Sept. 25, 2025, with an estimated contract value of $2.2 million. In September 2025, Wayland was awarded $884,000 from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Program toward completing the Dam Rehabilitation Project.
The town had plans (ATM 2025, Article 19) to use approximately $1.4 million in funding from its real estate receipts account (Rivers Edge/Alta Oxbow parcel sale) to cover the current shortfall and to not jeopardize the $650,000 in ARPA funds allocated in 2023 that must be expended by December 2026. Sufficient funds had to be secured to sign the rehabilitation contract before commencing work.
As the project proceeds, the town will submit for reimbursement from FEMA. The funds will show up in FY27-28 and will be returned to capital stabilization, real estate reserve or another reserve fund according to Finance Director Brian Keveny. The reimbursement will not be put into the operating budget.
The Dam had moved from a fair Phase 1 inspection ratingin 1999 to poor in August 2021 after rains from Hurricane Ida overtopped the dam and triggered monthly follow up inspections. Beginning around 2012, the Finance Committee treated the dam’s flagged engineering issues from the state dam safety office as a known but deferred capital liability.
The funding will assist with addressing several structural deficiencies and bring the 150-year-old dam into compliance with engineering and safety standards, including raising the dam’s core wall, rebuilding the existing stone retaining wall, renovating the gatehouse to improve access, upgrades to the dam spillway system and dam overflow system to include the construction of an approximate 465-square-foot wetland impoundment, a new drawdown diversion line, and a weather/water monitoring system.
The 1878 stone masonry 250-square-foot gatehouse on the dam’s downside slope was built by the dam’s designer H.W. Blaisdell. It is listed by the MassachusettsHistorical Commission as the Wayland Water Works Pumphouse. Snake Brook was dammed in colonial times, built to current plans in 1878 and upgraded in 1907, but its use as a water supply for Cochituate Village ended in 1929.
For an historical overview by the Finance Committee on the road to funding the dam repairs, see 2019 ATM warrant, article 23, pg. 84 at tinyurl.com/SnakeBrookDam23, and from there to October 2025 see tinyurl.com/WP-snake-brook.
