This is a list of dams in Massachusetts that have been removed as physical impediments to free-flowing rivers or streams.
The Tel-Electric Dam was removed from the West Branch Housatonic River in Pittsfield in 2020. The project required safely disposing of 8,000 tons (7,300 metric tons) of sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl pollution from a General Electric plant. The project cost around $4 million and benefited an environmental justice community as defined by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The North and South Rivers Watershed Association is working with town, state, and private stakeholders on the South River Restoration Project, which will remove three dams blocking fish migration on the South River.
The structurally deficient High Street Dam was the most downstream barrier on the Town River to fish migrating from Narragansett Bay via the Taunton River. Its removal in 2023 opened of river to fish passage as well as of spawning habitat in Lake Nippenicket.
The 2014 removal of a dam from the Westfield River tributary Kinne Brook in Chester was a collaboration between Trout Unlimited, the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration, the National Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a private landowner. It was part of a larger project to restore of stream, which also involved the replacement of two culverts.
Dudleyville Pond Dam on the Saw Mill River in Shutesbury underwent emergency removal in summer 2024 following an American Rivers study showing the dam was an imminent public safety risk. The Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration removed the dam at a cost of $118,000 within a month of the town's Conservation Commission issuing an emergency certification for its removal. The project was noted for its unusually rapid timeline.