Notes From an Environmentalist; A Small Wager on Removing the Ipswich Dam.

                        A Small Wager

Let me be perfectly clear. I think removing the Ipswich dam will be a good; good for the river, good for alewives and good for the millions of fresh water fish and invertebrates that perish every day when they plunge over the dam into salt water.

But the recent floods have shown us that removing the dam is not risk free. Just as the proponents of removing the dam can’t prove that it won’t damage the Choate Bridge, opponents can’t prove that it will. This is simply one of the limitations of science, that you can’t prove a negative. 

Such scientific fine points can confuse a public policy debate. But let me make it simpler.

I will be willing to wager that the Choate Bridge will be washed out within ten years whether we remove the dam or not.

The floods should also remind us that the real problem is how do we preserve the Choate for as long as possible in a world of more frequent and powerful storms.

To find that answer history can guide us.  When the Agawams lived in what we now call Ipswich, the river reportedly split in two at the present site of the EBSCO dam. One side wound through a low area, past the present police station and into the town’s Great Cove, the other was in its present location and the land between was an island.

The Agawams built their village on the Upper Falls, where the dam is now, because it was the best place to ford the river and catch fish. The Colonists settled there for the same reason and made good money pickling herring and sending them to the far reaches of the British Empire.

Then, in 1764 Colonel John Choate built the Choate Bridge in the narrowest, arguably the most vulnerable part of the river.

Now the best way to preserve the Choate Bridge, which is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark may be to rebuild the diversionary channel into Great Cove.

It would probably cost about $10 million dollars to redirect the river and build a small bridge to replace the already damaged County Street Bridge.

Ten million dollars might sound like a lot but Federal agencies like FEMA and the Department of Transportation have funds for just this sort of thing through President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill.

Another solution would be to divert traffic from 1a to a corridor parallel to the railroad tracks and over the existing railroad bridge upstream of the town. This would have the added advantage of diverting large trucks away from the town center.

But the state will probably decide that such solutions are too expensive and will simply replace the Choate Bridge with a shiny new steel structure.