Lake Waukewan's Level Is Set Under Mill Falls Marketplace. That Outlet Is About to Be Rebuilt.

Lake Waukewan spent this summer six inches below its normal level. The cause is a cracked concrete surge tank tucked between the Mill Falls Marketplace and the Palmer Inn in downtown Meredith. That tank is the lake's only outlet. It belongs to a hospitality company, and it traces back to a canal dug more than two centuries ago to run mills. Over the next several years, the lake's level and a good stretch of downtown Meredith will follow one timeline: the schedule for replacing that outlet.

A mill canal still sets the lake

John Bond Swasey built a 600-foot canal between 1816 and 1818 to send Waukewan's water to the falls where the Mill Falls Marketplace now stands. The water powered saw, grist and cotton mills, and later the Meredith Electric Light Company. According to the Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society, the site was industrial into the 1980s and became a shopping area in 1984.

The buildings became shops and an inn, but the water still runs through the old route. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services lists the structure as Lake Waukewan Dam D155001. The owner is Hampshire Hospitality Holdings, LLC, care of Procaccianti Companies in Cranston, Rhode Island. NHDES's 2011 operating decision tells the owner how to run the outlet. It sets a summer level of 540.0 feet from May 15 to Columbus Day and a winter level of 538.5 feet.

That decision also explains why the winter drawdown exists. The dam can only release water so fast. In the years before 2011, the lake had been held near 540.4 feet, and storms raised it quickly enough to flood shoreline property and damage shoreline vegetation. The 1.5-foot fall drawdown leaves room in Waukewan and Winona to hold 2.26 inches of runoff from the watershed. The whole system was set up around how much water this one outlet can pass.

What the state found in June

NHDES inspected the dam on June 11, 2026. The dam operator and The Turner Group, the engineers designing the rebuild, had reported that the surge tank was wearing out faster than expected. Inspectors found:

• concrete breaking away at both ends of the stoplog spillway, where steel beams had just been added as an emergency support
• corroded, exposed rebar at the northeast base
• a vertical crack running down from the top of the tank that may be growing, with two steel cables recently wrapped around the upper tank to lower the chance of structural failure
• a 6-foot-diameter concrete plug, reportedly installed in 1975, that was soaked through and leaking around its edge

The letter describes what a failure would do in practical terms. A plug failure would send a fast flood wave at the supports of the enclosed walkway between the Mill Falls Marketplace building and the Palmer Inn, and then toward Guiseppe's Pizzaria & Ristorante, both the restaurant and its outdoor patio. The gatehouse just upstream had no working gate, because the rotted one was removed in 2022. That left no way to stop flow if anything downstream of the canal failed.

NHDES declared an emergency and issued a Letter of Deficiency dated June 26, 2026. It set these deadlines:

The rebuild itself goes back further. A 2021 deficiency letter started the design work on the canal, penstock, surge tank and flume.

Why the lake dropped nine inches before settling at six

At the Meredith Select Board meeting on July 27, Selectperson Leighton raised a question people in the room had brought with them. The lake was supposed to drop 6 inches, and it had dropped 9. John Lavigne of The Turner Group explained the gap:

"They went back to the old gate house, removed the old, rotted gate, and added two channels so they could better control the lake levels. To complete that installation, they had to lower the lake level by 9". It is now set up to control the lake level at a 6" draw down, and all they need is some rain to fill it back in."

That gatehouse work is the backup control system the state ordered for July 24. The minutes confirm it was in place. We found no public confirmation that every other item due by July 24 was finished.

October's drawdown starts from a lower line

Under the 2011 decision, the owner starts pulling stoplogs on or promptly after Columbus Day and aims for 538.5 feet "as quickly as possible." Columbus Day falls on October 12 this year. The emergency letter keeps the extra six-inch lowering only until that date. After that, the lake goes back to the normal schedule. In a typical year, the drop runs 1.5 feet from full. This year the lake is starting near 539.5, so it has about a foot left to fall. The winter level is the same as usual. The difference is that docks and shorelines have been sitting half a foot lower since July.

Spring is less certain. The December 1 bypass has to stay in place "for over a year" until the new outlet is built. NHDES acknowledges a bypass may not carry as much water as the current system. The letter says any reduced flow should be evaluated "in terms of the potential need to lower the operating level of Lake Waukewan" while the bypass is in use. So the target for summer 2027 depends on how much water the bypass can pass, and that has not been published. The 2011 refill goal of 540.0 feet by May 15 is still the written standard.

A construction calendar built around summer

The preliminary schedule presented to the Select Board on July 27 lines up closely with the lake's own operating calendar:

1. Put the project out to public bid by September 2026, which federal funding requires.
2. Start construction as early as November or December 2026.
3. Pause by May 2027.
4. Resume after Columbus Day 2027.
5. Finish in late 2028 or early 2029.

Each work season falls inside the drawdown period, and each pause covers the May 15 to Columbus Day recreation season set in 2011. FEMA is covering 65% of the cost and the dam owner is paying the rest. The minutes also note that Meredith will likely lose some parking spaces during the first two phases. Before presenting the schedule, the project team met with the town manager, the DPW director, the water and sewer superintendent, and the police and fire chiefs.

The Laconia Daily Sun reported that the Select Board approved storing pipe for the project at the town landfill property. The pipe needs a 20-week lead time, and the project was expected to start this fall. A later summary of an August 10 presentation gave a shorter timeline, with the work running into spring 2028. The town's own minutes are still the official schedule. As of today, we found no public announcement of a contractor. The Windy Waters Conservancy dam project page still links only to the June letter.

Upstream, the lake is a drinking water supply

The outlet sets how much water stays in the lake. Water quality depends on what reaches it from the watershed. Lake Waukewan is Meredith's main drinking water source, and state water-purity rules for the watershed above the dam ban discharging human or boat waste and letting pets into the lake.

Meredith's watershed committee has spent 2026 identifying where that protection is weakest. In March it named the town boat launch, the park next to it, and the nearby shorefront as the worst source of nonpoint pollution, and it passed a resolution to post signs banning bulk and commercial water withdrawals. In April the committee reviewed ten years of NHDES testing that showed conductivity and phosphorus near the boat launch at many times the lake averages, and it was getting engineering evaluations and design options for that site before looking for funding to fix it. In July, the committee recorded commercial hydroseeder trucks drawing large amounts of lake water. In August, it reported a two-day survey of waterfront parcels covering buffers, erosion, runoff and vegetation, with the results meant for the 2026 revision of the watershed plan. The town also issued an alert on August 11 about a cyanobacteria bloom on Lake Winona.

That revision is a draft Lake Waukewan and Lake Winona Watershed Restoration Plan, prepared by FB Environmental Associates with the Town of Meredith, and public comment is open through Sunday, October 18, 2026. The earlier 2016 plan focused on cutting sediment and phosphorus.

Ways to take part this fall:

• Comment on the draft plan by October 18. Comments go to Donna Murphy at [email protected], and the town accepts them in any form.
• Volunteer as a lake host at the boat ramp. The program received a $2,400 NH LAKES grant for 2026, and the committee keeps recording a need for more volunteers.
• Support water sampling. The Waukewan Shore Owners Association, which operates as Windy Waters Conservancy, runs state VLAP sampling at five spots on Waukewan, including two deep-water sites, and coordinates with the Meredith Water Department.
• Follow the dam project through the Meredith Select Board. The Turner Group said it plans to come back to the board with updates.

If you own on Waukewan or Winona, or you're thinking about it, the next few years of lake levels, dock planning and downtown construction will come up in almost every conversation about these shorelines. Martha Trepanier follows these Meredith projects closely and is glad to talk through what the outlet rebuild could mean for your property. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.