Smithfield no longer planning to demolish dam

Two years after reversing course on plans to demolish its Waterworks Road dam, Smithfield is in the process of renewing the earthen embankment’s state operating permit, according to Town Manager Michael Stallings.

A state report from 2018 had classified the dam as a “significant” flooding hazard. Citing a 2020 report by the engineering firm Draper Aden Associates, which had at the time estimated a $1.5 million cost for bringing the dam into compliance with state regulations, the Town Council opted that year to forego the needed repairs and in 2021 voted to solicit proposals to drain the 26.2-acre Smithfield Lake instead.

The 2021 vote prompted pushback from area residents, among them Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department Chief Chris Edwards, who told council members his department uses the lake to fill its tankers when responding to large rural fires.

Draper Aden had estimated demolishing a section of the embankment and installing a culvert to drain the lake could either save the town money, or end up costing more than the needed repairs, depending on what environmental impact mitigations the town pursued.

Without environmental mitigations, the sediment that’s been accumulating since the dam’s construction more than a century ago would be washed downstream during future storms, the Draper Aden report warns. Mount Holly Creek, which forms the Smithfield Lake as a result of the dam, flows into the Pagan River, which is a tributary of the James River.

“The current directive from Council is to work to maintain the dam,” Stallings said, adding “there are no current discussions of demolishing the dam.”

According to the book “Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia” by Helen Haverty King, the dam dates to 1900 when the county’s Circuit Court granted Smithfield Water Co. a charter to build and maintain a waterworks at the site, which had been an old cotton mill. The State Corporations Commission dissolved the company in 1959, at which time the dam came into the town’s possession.

Since the town transitioned to wells for its drinking water, the dam has served as a public park. Problems with the dam began in 2010 when heavy rains weakened the structure, according to past reporting by The Smithfield Times.