I-Team: Letters show state warned Leominster about deficient dam for nearly 20 Years
LEOMINSTER - In flood-ravaged Leominster, residents spent much of Thursday protecting low-lying areas with sandbags, preparing for rain expected Saturday. "We don't need this next storm. It's the least thing we need right now," said Mayor Dean Mazzarella.
It has also had crews racing to backfill the damaged Barrett Park Pond Dam. During Monday's downpours, part of a wall gave way, sending water gushing downstream to Pleasant Street about 500 yards down, near a home that's now hanging over a crater. The couple who lived there had no flood coverage in their homeowner's insurance. "Despite losing my inheritance, I could have lost my parents simultaneously," said their son Andre Obin.
The WBZ I-Team obtained a series of letters the state sent to Leominster officials after an inspection flagged it as "structurally deficient and in poor condition" as far back as 2006. The Office of Dam Safety slapped the city with a non-compliance certificate and a safety order in 2008, another letter of non-compliance in 2015, and again in 2017.
Over nearly 20 years, state officials never followed through with threats of fines. Leominster's mayor says designs and permits to replace it were finally done before this week's flood. "There are others that should have been replaced that were more important, and I think the state and the federal government have to understand with everything that we do every day, you can't possibly play catch up," he said.
For now, new stones are stacked along the dam to fortify it. Crews rushed to add them in the days following the flood. Leominster's mayor and public works director say they're confident it will hold up to any rain in the forecast.
They also say other communities should consider what happened to Leominster, a wake-up call. The I-Team requested a list of other crumbling dams, but the state has not yet shared that information.
Obin hopes others can learn from his family's misfortune. "My parents paid home insurance for 40 years and flood insurance isn't included," he said. "I think that's something all people who live downstream of anything should consider purchasing. Use us as a lesson."