Smelt Brook Run

Smelt Brook Run

Pond Meadow Park is a recreational destination as well as a large area set aside for nature. This beautiful location also serves a dual purpose as flood control for the Towns of Braintree and Weymouth. The Army Corp of Engineers built the flood control system in 1976. This system was built to keep The Landing from flooding from Smelt Brook which runs underneath it. They created a dam, a 20 acre pond and a system of culverts running underneath The Landing and beside Brookside Road  in Braintree.

We are waiting for an announcement from the Army Corps of Engineers on plans to rehab Smelt Brook. I went to Pond Meadow Park to interview Park Ranger Sean Cleaves to see how the current flood control and smelt run system works and how it could be improved.

Sean explained they open up the fish gate from the end of February to May which goes into the old culvert which has a level incline so the fish can get upstream. The smelt cannot get up to the newer culvert which has an eight foot incline; so the Army Corps saved the old culvert for the fish run. The rangers maintain the system and shut the fish gate during storms.

The Army Corps put stone in the 800 feet between the end of the culvert and a perched culvert but it has been covered over by silt. They put the stone down as Rainbow Smelt attach their eggs to the rocky stream bed; this is called spawning. There is a perched culvert 800 feet upstream from the fish gate. Sean explained they need a level slope because smelt are "lazy fish" so the smelt so a the perched culvert is not an option. They recommend the best option for the smelt is to remove the perched culvert off of Brookside Road and restore the natural rocky river bed. I asked if the smelt get confused and go into the wrong culvert when the fish gate is open and he said that the Smelt, "Smell the fresh water in the old [Culvert]." If the culvert was to be removed the fish would be able to access more then a mile of stream bed compared to only 800 feet.

Sean also said that his partner has walked through the culvert to clean trash and that it really needs a major professional clean up as there are lots of wires and other trash. The old culvert is extremely dangerous so he advises that no one goes into it. He also told me that the old culvert that the smelt use goes right under the Landing Pub and there is a hatch that goes into the building. There were talks to rebuild the property at the Pub which would allow him to access and clean the culvert more easily. The Towns of Weymouth and Braintree are in charge of the old culvert because it is the town line but the rangers are in charge of the new one. The Army Corps should have an announcement of the Project to allow the fish more access to the upper part of the brook soon and a meeting will be scheduled.