KILLINGLY, Conn. — The owners of the failing dam that creates Old Killingly Pond on the Connecticut-Rhode Island border don’t want to repair the dam and restore the water level in the pond, according to a memorandum sent to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

The memorandum from an engineering firm hired by Wright Investors’ Service Holdings Inc. (WISH), owners of the dam, acknowledges new permits will be required from DEEP to “maintain the impoundment in its current drawdown condition.” The dam is entirely in Connecticut and regulated by DEEP.

Last September, WISH informed DEEP it was receiving complaints about low water levels. An investigation showed significant seepage from the dam, which eventually turned cloudy with sediments, a sign the dam could be eroding from the inside.

Deemed an emergency, the lower outlet of the dam was opened and the water level in Old Killingly Pond plummeted by some 10 feet, in a pond with an average depth of only about 11 feet, according to DEEP. Residents who live by the pond were upset by the drastic change, as were town officials, who say the pond is a source of water for local firefighters.

“It’s not a good situation for anybody,” said David Griffiths, vice chair of the Town Council. “They draw water from the pond in case of fire.”

The 81-year-old Griffiths has lived in Killingly his entire life and has been swimming in Old Killingly Pond nearly as long.

“We’ve always appreciated the dam and the pond that backed it up,” Griffiths said. “It’s the nicest and clearest water to go swimming in, and a lot of people I know like to go fishing and kayaking. It’s just a great place to go. It’s spring-fed, so it’s very clear water.”

The Old Killingly Pond dam is one of five dams and reservoirs built by the Chestnut Hill Water Co. about 200 years ago to generate power for sawmills and textile mills along Whetstone Brook — now owned by WISH, through a long, convoluted process of corporate takeovers.

In October 2020, Harold Kahn, acting chief financial officer of WISH, offered to donate the five dams to the town of Killingly, according to the minutes of a meeting of the Killingly Planning and Zoning Commission.

Kahn noted there were no development opportunities or profit motives associated with the obsolete dams, and that the properties should be with an owner who is “genuinely concerned about maintaining them and who believes that they have the appropriate civic, social and environmental value to them.”

The town of Killingly declined the offer, as did the state of Connecticut nine years earlier in 2011, and for the same reason.

“That’s quite a liability that you’re undertaking,” Griffiths said. “We don’t have that kind of money that would be required for liability.”

The plunging water level in Old Killingly Pond also exposed a site on the Rhode Island shore of the pond that is possibly a Native American burial ground. Both the Rhode Island state archaeologist, Charlotte Taylor, and the historic preservation officer for the Narragansett Indian Tribe, John Brown, have called for the water level of the pond to be restored to re-submerge the site and protect it.

“If historic properties have been underwater for 75 or 100 years, anything that interacts with the air has the potential for being destroyed,” Brown said. “That includes stone.”

Being back underwater would also protect the site from vandalism.

“There are people who will go to a burial site, dig up a skull and put it on their mantlepiece,” Taylor said.

Recently, Taylor visited the site with Justen Fisher, a Killingly resident who lives on the shore of the pond.

“It’s a very cool, respectful site,” Fisher said. “It’s hard to explain. [Taylor] was intrigued. I’m no archaeologist, but there’s this warm and enlightening aura when you step on the sandbar. If this is tribal ground, they deserve the respect for knowing these are their ancestors and not turn a blind eye to it.”

Taylor was reluctant to talk about the site or discuss any conclusions she drew about it.

“I don’t want to attract public attention, because it’s not going to be protected,” Taylor said. “The land is below the boundaries of the water.”

Ownership of the potential burial site is also unclear at this point, because the lowered water levels have changed the landscape, according to Taylor and Fisher.

“What we heard from (Fisher) was the property lines are now very uncertain,” Taylor said.

WISH has an April 17 deadline to consult with experts and evaluate “all aspects of the technical and environmental reviews associated with the permit application and submit a schedule by which the permit application will be submitted to the Department,” according to a March 9 email from Anna Laskin, supervising civil engineer for DEEP’s Dam Safety Program.

DEEP spokesperson William Flood said in an email the public will have the opportunity to comment online on WISH’s proposal to permanently maintain the lowered water level in Old Killingly Pond. He said notices will be placed in area newspapers and on DEEP’s website.

“The Department is currently evaluating the situation and determining appropriate next steps,” Flood wrote.

Fisher, who has seen the view from his house on the shore of the pond change drastically for the worse, said he’s concerned about bigger issues, such as whether the aquifer supplying drinking water to Killingly will be affected by the reduced water level in the pond.

“This is bigger than my house or my waterfront,” Fisher said. “Water is everything.”

Correction: This byline on this story was incorrect in an earlier version. It was not written by Rob Smith.