Quincy Restoration Project at Butler’s Pond Nears Completion

Restoration Project at Butler’s Pond Nears Completion

QUINCY, MA – March 9, 2022

Mayor Thomas Koch announced that the restoration project at Butler’s Pond is nearing completion.  The City launched a program to enhance this local wetland, home to a variety of native wildlife and a vital component of neighborhood drainage. 

The pond had been deteriorating over the years as sediment and contaminants built up in the pond.  The changing chemistry in the pond choked out healthy plants and reduced its habitat value.  Algae blooms and phragmite also helped choke off the pond’s vitality.

In April 2021, Quincy City Council unanimously approved Mayor Koch’s request for $1.4M in funding for the dredging of 3,900 cubic yards of sediment from Butler’s Pond and the construction of a gravel stormwater treatment wetland at the north end of the pond.

The City’s contractor, Luciano’s Excavation Inc. of Taunton, broke ground on the project in September 2021. The dredging portion of the project is now complete, and the pond’s natural depth has been restored, which will strengthen its function as a stormwater retention basin, as well as improve water and habitat quality via the removal of decades worth of accumulated sediment. The construction of the gravel stormwater treatment wetland is ongoing. The purpose of the constructed wetland is to filter out sediments and pollutants flowing to the pond via stormwater runoff, which will help preserve the benefits of the dredging for decades to come. The wetland and pond perimeter will then be re-vegetated with native plants to prevent bank erosion and restore the balance of the pond’s ecosystem.

“I am extremely grateful for the strong neighborhood leadership and support from the Friends of Butlers Pond through the years,” said Mayor Koch.  “It is through citizen commitment and involvement that we can all contribute to a better community.  They helped keep this project on the radar and the completion of this project would not have been likely without their advocacy.”

“The Butler’s Pond project is a wonderful example of what strong teamwork can accomplish. Between working with the Friends of Butler’s Pond to gain community support, earning the unanimous support of Quincy’s City Council, teaming up with the New England Herpetological Society and the New England Wildlife Center to protect the pond’s turtles, and coordinating with the Luciano’s team and our project engineer at ESS Group, I am proud to call this project a huge success,” said Julie Sullivan, the City’s Environmental Scientist and Butler’s Pond project manager.

To find out more about the Butler’s Pond restoration project, please contact Quincy’s Environmental Scientist Julie Sullivan at (617) 376-1287 or via email at juliannesullivan@quincyma.gov.