PORTLAND, Maine — A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought against the operators of a dam on the Kennebec River in an effort to protect the endangered Atlantic salmon can move forward.
The judge ruled Thursday that the case deserves to be heard on its merits.
The lawsuit, brought by Friends of Merrymeeting Bay and Environment Maine, claims the Hydro Kennebec dam violates federal endangered species laws because it kills fish and blocks access to salmon habitat.
The defendants, Brookfield Power U.S. Asset Management LLC and an affiliate, Hydro Kennebec LLC, sought to have the case dismissed or put on hold to allow federal agencies to deal with the issue.
The companies argued the case is too complex for a federal judge to decide, and that no violation of the law is occurring.
Everyone that thinks it’s a good idea to tear out these dams should be forced to live without electricity.
I am glad that you are an anonymous blogger and not someone in a pubic influential position with such radical, Stalin ideals.
The new wind farms commissioned in Maine this year more than compensated for loss of generating capacity at the Fort Halifax and Edwards dams.
Furthermore, the Penobscot Restoration Project clearly demonstrates that you can have hydroelectricity and diadromous fish.
Ignorant rhetoric fail.
Park for ME.
yessah
Your dearly beloved “Penobscot Restoration Project” should have been paid for by the dam owners as a condition for expanding the generation capacity in order to supply more fossil free power.
Instead, they were given the consolation prize of being able to keep what generation capacity they had.
If the DIF&W had just half of the money wasted on the atlantic salmon recovery effort, they wouldn’t need funding for the landlocked freshwater fishery stocking program for years.
Oh, and the wind farms…….
Great power……….if you only need it for 25% of the time.
Im all for Salmon habitat and the ability of them to reach spawning grounds. I am all for electric power havested from Maine Rivers. Somewhere in the middle there is a solution that works if everyone is capable of being reasonable.
The best solution for the salmon was before the arrival of man.
Hydro electricity need not be too bad on the salmon. The way power plants operate today it is awfully bad, at least here in Norway where I live,when dams are closed rapidly and the water level downward of the dam suddenly fall two or three feet, with the result of killing off fry and fingerlings living in the shallow parts of the river.Let`s save the atlantic salmon, the most beautiful fish that ever swam the rivers.