' If 5 1 f* *^P I ."^ ^ ?^ ""f ?*f^T f foil u IV .©ov Doe COLL Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 witii funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries littp://www.arcliive.org/details/annualreportofbo1913boar Public Document No. 11 THIETY-FIFTH ANNUAL EEPOET BOARD or HARBOE AND LAND COMMISSIONERS. For the Year 1913 I inn^rtv I wioy/iH,i^i.^uyi LifilMlii GOV DOC ecu BOSTON: WEIGHT & POTTEE FEINTING CO., STATE PEINTEES, 32 DEENE STEEET. 1914. Approved by The State Board of Publication. ®()£ (JommontDeaUl) of ^assatl)U0etts. REPORT. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts. The Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, pursuant to the provisions of law, respectfully submits its annual report for the year 1913, covering a period of twelve months, from Nov. 30, 1912, being the thirty-fifth annual report of the Board since its establishment by chapter 263 of the Acts of 1879. The present organization of the Board is as follows: William S. McNary of Boston, chairman, George E. Smith of Swamp- scott, Charles C. Paine of Barnstable. From Dec. 1, 1912, to Nov. 30, 1913, the Board has given 185 formal and informal hearings, and has received 178 peti- tions for the improvement and protection of rivers, harbors and foreshores, for licenses to build and maintain structures, for privileges in tide waters, great ponds and Connecticut River, to dredge material, to remove material from beaches and for other purposes. One hundred and seventeen licenses for structures and privi- leges in tide waters, great ponds and Connecticut River have been granted during the year; also 22 permits for dredging, the removal of material from beaches and for other purposes. Inspections have been made at various times, by and under the direction of the Board, of work completed and in progress; of sites of authorized work under appropriations made by the Legislature; also upon petitions and plans presented of the sites of proposed work in tide waters; of rivers and harbors, on petitions for improvement under chapter 481 of the Acts of 1909, and chapter 642 of the Acts of 1912; work done and in 4 HARBOR AND LAND COMMISSIONERS. [Jan. progress on Cape Cod Canal; various structures built under licenses; town boundary survey work. During the year 18 contracts were made, involving the esti- mated expenditure of $171,007.45. A list of these contracts and those pending, with details relating thereto, may be found in the Appendix. The Improvement and Protection of Rivers, Harbors, Tide Waters and Foreshores. By chapter 481 of the Acts of the year 1909 the Board was authorized and directed to undertake such work for the im- provement, development, maintenance and protection of rivers, harbors, tide waters and foreshores within the Commonwealth as it may deem to be reasonable and proper, and to expend during the years 1910, 1911 and 1912 a sum not exceeding $300,000, not more than $100,000 to be expended in any one year, provided, however, that an unexpended balance in any year might be used in the succeeding year. This act also provided that the Board shall consider the general public advantage of the proposed work, the local in- terest therein as manifested by municipal or other contributions therefor, the importance of the industrial or commercial and other interests to be especially served thereby, and any other material considerations affecting the feasibility, necessity or ad- vantage of the proposed work or the expenditure therefor. It was further provided that no work shall be commenced until after a public hearing has been held and a survey and estimate of cost has been made; that a city or town might appropriate money for the improvement of rivers, harbors, tide waters and foreshores within its jurisdiction, the money so appropriated to be paid into the State treasury, to be expended by the Board for said purposes; and that the city or town might as- sume liability for all damages to property suffered by any per- son by any taking of land, or of any right, interest or easement in land within the city or town made by the Board for the purposes authorized by the act. By chapter 642 of the Acts of 1912 the Board is authorized — To expend during the years nineteen hundred and thirteen, nineteen hundred and fourteen and nineteen hundred and fifteen, a sum not exceed- 1914.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 11. 5 ing four hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the improvement, develop- ment, maintenance and protection of rivers, harbors, tidewaters and foreshores within the commonwealth now under the jurisdiction of said board. The board shall not expend more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in any one year, except that an unexpended balance in any year may be used in the succeeding year for the said pur- pose. The total expenditure by the State from 1893 to Dec, 1, 1913, for river and harbor work, exclusive of that in Boston main harbor, as shown on page 6, report for 1912, was $2,092,- 640.53.1 It is apparent that $150,000 per year is utterly inadequate to meet the demands made upon this Board for allotments for river and harbor improvements throughout the State. The necessity for a larger amount was manifested before the legisla- tive committee on harbors and public lands at the last session of the Legislature. A broad and comprehensive bill providing for the expenditure of $5,000,000 in five years at the rate of $1,000,000 per year, for work of that character, failed of pas- sage by a narrow margin only. There has been prepared and already filed, as required by law, a bill embodying the recommendations of the Board, authorizing it to expend in addition to the unexpended balance of the appropriation under chapter 642 of the Acts of 1912, for the examination, survey, improvement, development, pro- tection, preservation and maintenance of rivers, streams, harbors, tide waters, foreshores, coast lines and river banks, excepting Boston harbor, amounts named in the bill and appli- cable to certain rivers and harbors. Petitions under the Acts of 1909 and 1912 aforesaid have been filed during the year for surveys and improvements in the following localities: Beverly harbor; Bucks Creek, Chatham; Centreville River; Connecticut River, at Agawam, Chicopee and Hatfield; Cuttyhunk; Duxbury Bay; Eel Pond, Fal- mouth; Fall River harbor; Gloucester harbor; Green Hill, Hull; Little or Leman's Pond, Falmouth; Lynn harbor; Man- chester harbor; Nonquitt, Dartmouth; Pamet River, Truro; Paskamansett River, Dartmouth; Rock harbor, Orleans; 1 See Appendices B and C. 6 HARBOR AND LAND COMMISSIONERS. [Jan. Salters Point, Dartmouth; Scituate harbor; South Watuppa Pond, Fall River; South River, Salem; Wild harbor, Fal- mouth; and Witchmere harbor. The action taken upon these several petitions, as well as statements concerning Boston harbor and other harbors and rivers, and the various surveys, examinations and improvements made between 1893 and Nov. 30, 1913, inclusive, follow. Bass Rivee, Yakmouth. Between 1901 and 1910 this river was improved by building two timber jetties at its mouth and excavating a channel be- tween the jetties and across the flats to a depth of 4 feet at mean low water, and by providing a channel 100 feet wide on the bottom from the deep water between the jetties through the flats to the deep water in the sound, a distance of about 1,700 feet. The total expenditure to Dec. 1, 1910, was $47,471.72. In 1911 further protective work was done on the westerly jetty at a total cost of $5,088.88. In May, 1912, a petition of the selectmen of the town of Yar- mouth and others, under the provisions of chapter 481 of the Acts of 1909, for further improvement of this river by dredging, was presented. Hearing was held and a survey made to deter- mine the existing conditions of a portion of the channel and estimate the cost of further dredging. It is estimated that the cost of dredging the main channel and a spur channel would be about $20,400. Amount expended during the year, $328.20. Total amount expended to Dec. 1, 1913, $52,888.80. Beverly Harbor. On June 21, 1912, a communication was received from the mayor of Beverly, under the provisions of chapter 481 of the Acts of 1909, suggesting that a survey be made of Beverly harbor. There have been no expenditures by the Commonwealth under the direction of this Board for the improvement of Beverly harbor by dredging nor for the construction of any harbor works. The River and Harbor Act, approved July 25, 1912, provided for a preliminary examination and survey of this 1914.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 11. 7 harbor. This work was undertaken by the district engineer officer at Boston, who submitted to the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., two reports dated Sept. 25, 1912, and June 10, 1913, respectively. The project proposed by the federal government particularly concerns the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is described in the following general statement, which also in- cludes an account of the work done in this harbor. In its original condition this harbor had a practicable channel 18 feet deep at mean low water from Monument Bar beacon about 1 mile to its head, about 600 feet below the highway bridge, sufficient for the commerce of the harbor and of its three tributary streams, called, re- spectively, North River, Essex Branch, and Beverly Creek; but the channel, which is circuitous in its passage through the shoals at the entrance, was found, in 1900, to be "of insufficient width for safe navi- gation by heavy vessels." The original project, adopted by the act of June 13, 1902, was to widen the channel from Monument Bar beacon to a point about 200 feet east of Rams Horn beacon to a width of 200 feet, with a depth of 18 feet at mean low water, at an estimated cost of $10,000.