10 June 2024
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The fate of four dams in Maine that are hindering the migration of wild Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish has drawn international attention after federal regulators gave preliminary approval in March to relicense one dam and require all four to improve fish passages, moves that will allow the dams to operate for several more decades.
The stakes couldn’t be higher, pitting the potential survival of a species against business interests. Maine is the only U.S. state where wild Atlantic salmon have survived in a few rivers, including the Kennebec and Penobscot. That is forcing parties involved to weigh whether the dams are producing enough electricity to justify ongoing operations now that alternative energies including solar and wind are coming online.
Environmentalists and others are advocating for removal of the four dams on the Kennebec River to give the best chance for wild Atlantic salmon, which are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, to repopulate. Their numbers have dwindled from about 200,000 before the dams were built to fewer than 2,000 now.
On the opposite side of the debate is Brookfield Renewable, which owns dozens of dams in Maine, including the four under federal review. It wants to keep and upgrade the four dams with fish ladders and other infrastructure, an effort that NOAA Fisheries estimated could cost the company more than $100 million. The four dams combined can generate close to 47 kilowatts of electricity, which experts estimate at less than 1 percent of Maine’s total electricity generation.
Another large supporter of keeping the dams is Sappi North America, which needs water from the Shawmut dam in Benton and Fairfield for paper production. Sappi told regulators that removing the Shawmut dam would have “potentially devastating effects on Sappi’s Somerset Mill and the surrounding communities.” It said replacing the water supply, which is used for processing, cooling and fire protection by the paper mill, could cost $50 million, if it is possible at all. Water from the four dams collectively supports 40 percent of the state’s remaining paper mill production, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which oversees the dams.
The Shawmut dam spans the Kennebec River, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in Fairfield, Maine. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty / BDN
“This is a major moment in history, about as serious as a river proceeding gets,” said Frank Richards, a retired Maine state statistician who has been involved in dam and fish ladder projects for the past 30 years. “Whatever ends up being recommended will likely dictate the future of the river for another 50 years.”
Richards, who supports removal of the dams, recently submitted one of the 84 online comments to FERC’s 449-page draft environmental impact report issued in March that recommended relicensing the Shawmut dam between Benton and Fairfield and amending all four dam licenses to require fish ladders and other improvements to help sea-run fish migrate to and from spawning grounds. The other dams are the Weston dam near Skowhegan, the Lockwood dam near Waterville and the Hydro Kennebec dam that spans the Kennebec River between Winslow and Waterville.
FERC released its report after Brookfield proposed the license changes for the four dams in 2021. Comments closed on June 4. A FERC spokesperson said the agency will review verbal comments from two public meetings in Maine and the written comments. It expects to issue a final environmental impact report with recommendations in September. The written comments are posted on the FERC elibrary website under docket P-2322.
This is not the first time the four dams faced potential removal. Gov. Janet Mills’ administration dropped a controversial proposal in April 2021 for restoring endangered Atlantic salmon to the Kennebec River. The plan called for removal of at least two of the hydroelectric dams and possibly two more. It got significant pushback from local towns worried about their tax base and drew a lawsuit from Brookfield Renewable. Four conservation groups that had sued Brookfield Renewable around the same time for killing salmon dropped their lawsuit last year to focus on the current FERC review of the dams.
An iconic fish’s fate draws worldwide attention
The plight of the Atlantic salmon has drawn international attention to FERC’s recommendations. The Natural Resources Council of Maine submitted a comment to the government agency asking for the dams to be removed. It included more than 3,600 signatures of people throughout the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland.
Ten comments came in separately from other parts of the United States, including one from Tony Chian of Buffalo, New York. As a conscientious angler, he said he needs to advocate for clean water and the protection of aquatic life regardless of geography. In his comment, he asked FERC to make sure that the fishery is managed.
“The Atlantic salmon is the one species of fish in the United States that requires the most attention of all,” he said. “Restoring the fish to the Kennebec would result in a profound change to the environment that would support a large range of adjacent activities.”
The Hydro Kennebec dam fish passage between Waterville and Winslow. Owner Brookfield Renewable spent $15 million to install the passage about six years ago, but cannot use it because of procedural delays at three of its other dams in Maine. Credit: Courtesy of Brookfield Renewable U.S.
The Natural Resources Council’s comment said the FERC fish passage proposals, including new fish ladders and screens to keep juvenile fish out of the dam, have not worked anywhere in the world, and there is no evidence they will work on the Kennebec River. It pointed to positive results after FERC made the unusual move of approving the removal of the Edwards Dam in 1999, including better water quality and a resurgence in wildlife.
“We must continue this success by reconnecting Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish to the Sandy River,” the comment said. “Access to the upper river is essential for recovery of Atlantic salmon to ensure the species will continue to exist in the United States.”
For some in Maine, Atlantic salmon are a key part of their diet. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians said that the damming of rivers and climate change have meant an ever-increasing loss of a central component of their traditional diet, practices and spiritual ceremonies.
“Restoring these fish to our homeland has been one of our biggest priorities for decades,” Chief Clarissa Sabattis commented.
The Sandy River, a tributary of the Kennebec River in Norridgewock, is the best salmon spawning habitat in the state, according to fisheries experts, but the four dams are preventing many salmon from reaching those grounds. The river enters the Kennebec River above all four dams. Some salmon that end up in the main part of the Kennebec River because they cannot traverse the dams are trapped and driven by truck to the Sandy River.
“Unobstructed passage between the Sandy River and the Gulf of Maine would be the most significant advance possible for recovery of Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish on the Atlantic coast,” Sabattis wrote in her comment to FERC favoring dam removal. If the dam is relicensed, however, she asked for at least two fish ladders at each dam and narrower screens to prevent young fish from entering the dam’s water flow.
River herring, also known as alewives, swim in a stream, Sunday, May 16, 2021, in Franklin, Maine. The fish were once headed for the endangered species list but have been making a comeback in some U.S. states. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty / AP
A delicate fish that needs protection
Atlantic salmon need access to clean and cool rivers to reproduce and for early growth. The adult fish migrate from the salt water of the ocean to lay their eggs in fresh water in rivers, which is why they are called sea-run or diadromous fish. They are delicate fish, and, even under the best conditions, only two of the 7,500 eggs laid by a large female salmon will survive to become adults, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
One of the best ways to help Atlantic salmon begin to recover is to have more adults spawning in rivers, the department said. Few Atlantic salmon survive in the ocean, it said, and for every 1,000 smolts that leave the Penobscot River for the ocean, only five will survive to return to the river as adults. The Penobscot River is home to the largest run of wild Atlantic salmon in the United States.
FERC’s draft environmental impact report recommends different additions for each of the dams, but generally it would add a fish ladder and screens to keep small fish out of the dam’s water flow, shut certain parts of the dam down at night in the spring to ease smolt outmigration and add a guidance boom to direct fish migrating downstream to new spillways.
A Brookfield spokesperson said the company started the process to improve the dams shortly after buying them in 2012. It installed a fish passage at Hydro Kennebec in 2018, investing about $15 million. The spokesperson said it cannot use the passage until FERC makes a final decision on the dams.
The Kennebec River is the second largest in Maine and is more than 600 feet wide throughout the four dams, making it difficult for the fish to locate the relatively narrow fishways, Stephen Heinz, coordinator for the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited, wrote in his comment. He worried that restoration efforts at the dams would take too long to significantly help salmon.
“With few hard dates set, the proposed restoration will not be implemented within a reasonable timeframe,” he said. “Climate change will exacerbate the situation. Delays will result in an effort spanning decades rather than years.”
Others, including the Maliseets, Sierra Club Maine Chapter and Appalachian Mountain Club, want the dams removed, but if FERC’s initial report is followed instead, they recommend putting in two fish ladders at each dam, making the screen mesh smaller and enforcing strong performance standards for the revitalization of sea-run fish within two years of construction.
FERC’s report sets a target of having 96 percent of adult salmon able to pass the dams within 48 hours of approaching them. The time it takes to cross the dam is important, because the fish can get stressed and weaken if it takes too long. The plan also calls for ensuring that up to 250,000 hatchery smolts are stocked upstream of the Weston dam for up to six years to provide a return of 200 adult salmon. Those salmon will become part of a one-year effectiveness study of upstream fish passage at the dams.
That seems like a small number of fish, but it is an improvement over today’s fish returns. Most years, Lockwood dam sees fewer than 50 adult salmon return, Larry Bastian, chair of the Maine chapter of the Native Fish Coalition, said in his comment supporting removal of the dams.
The four dams also are blocking millions of other sea-run fish including eels, blueback herring, alewives, shad and sea lamprey from reaching their native spawning waters, according to the Conservation Law Foundation. Alewives are a popular bait in the multi-million-dollar lobster industry.
Graham Goulette, fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, places freshly-hatched Atlantic salmon, called frys, in Kingsbury Stream in Abbot on May 9, 2024. State and federal agencies have been working to bring species numbers back up in Maine waterways. Credit: Stuart Hedstrom
Signs of resurgence from other dam removals
The arguments for removing dams or adding fish ladders to boost populations of sea-run fish have shifted over the past 30 years, said retired state statistician Richards. He has testified at half a dozen hearings on fish restoration and dams over the past 30-plus years, and he has seen a marked shift in sentiment toward removal.
Fish ladders have worked to some degree on some smaller streams off of the Kennebec River, although thousands of fish still bunched up below them, he said. Richards has seen more success with the removals of the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River in Augusta in 1999 and the Fort Halifax Dam on the Sebasticook River in Winslow in 2008.
He said he was amazed when FERC broke with tradition and ordered the two dams removed. Until then the arguments supported the value of electricity produced at the dams versus somewhat speculative environmental positions.
“I will argue that the positive effects of these dam removals have changed the arguments,” Richards said.
Before the removal of the Edwards Dam, the Kennebec river was “nothing more than a waste conveyance for the industrial activity of the river,” Pete Nichols, director of the Sierra Club Maine Chapter who grew up in Augusta in the 1970s, said in his comment.
“There was not a fish to be found for an adventurous kid with a fishing pole,” he wrote. “But with the Edwards Dam removed, almost immediately the river began to recover and today anyone can witness the benefits of that freeing of the river: leaping sturgeon, feeding ospreys and bald eagles and the economic rewards of a river section restored.”
Registered Maine guide Richard Behr of Three Rivers Guide Service in Vassalboro, said in his 35 years observing and guiding visitors on the lower Kennebec River, he saw how quickly an ecosystem can go back to its natural state, from the return of aquatic insects to fish and wildlife seeking food, once the Edwards Dam was removed.
“My wife and I were on the river just two days ago, and we were surrounded by river heron and a combination of alewives and blueback herring that are two important species,” he said. “In the past five or six years I’ve started to notice sea lampreys laying their eggs. They haven’t been in that section of the river for over 100 years.”
Brookfield Renewable, the dams’ owner, said science supports keeping the dams, including findings from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s biological opinion issued in March 2023 that found the four dams would not jeopardize the survival and recovery of endangered Atlantic salmon.
“Our proposal, like all of our relicensing proposals, is the product of many years of study and consultation with federal and state resource agencies, as well as the public, and is intended to carefully balance public, economic, energy, and natural resource interests,” a spokesperson for Brookfield Renewable U.S. said.
But most of the commenters to FERC disagreed about the value of the dams compared with the value of saving the salmon now that alternative energy sources are available.
Brunswick resident Allan Taylor expressed the opinions of many commenters, saying, “We cannot harness a vast river system to produce a tiny amount of power any longer.”
Lori Valigra is an investigative environment reporter for the BDN’s Maine Focus team. She may be reached at [email protected]. Support for this reporting is provided by the Unity Foundation and donations by BDN readers.