DERRY — Work on the removal of the Beaver Lake Dam could begin as early as next week.

Whereas proposals to have the town take control of the Adams Pond Dam has garnered some disagreement among citizens, the plan to do away with the Beaver Lake Dam has been a much more low-key affair.

The Beaver Lake Dam is already owned by the town, and its removal will have little or no effect on the water levels at Beaver Lake, according to Craig Durrette, town environmental coordinator.

The town had originally sought to remove the dam last year, but the project was delayed, according to Conservation Commission Chairman Margaret Ives.

“Last year, there was a proposal to remove the dam at Beaver Lake because it does nothing,” she said. “A dam further down in the meadow really controls what is in the lake.”

The project was delayed because of the high water level in the lake last year. The current year has been considerably drier.

Ives said Mike Fowler, the director of Public Works, wrote to the state’s Department of Environmental Services to say that work would begin on the dam removal during or after the week of Oct. 15, depending upon the amount of precipitation.

At a public hearing on the dam removal, highway supervisor Alan Cote said there would probably be heavy equipment on the road for about a week during the removal.

Once the concrete dam is removed, Durrette said the stream bed will be restored to its pre-dam condition.

The area will basically be restored to a stream bed. Over the past decade, Durrett said the trend has been to remove dams that do not serve a discernible purpose and return waterways to a more natural state.

Removal of the dam should also improve migration patterns for fish and other aquatic animals, he said.

An extensive hydraulic study of the Beaver Lake area showed that the removal of the dam will not change the water flow, according to Durrette.

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