OLD TOWN, Maine — When the demolition of the Great Works dam starts Monday, it will be the first visible step in a 13-year effort to open nearly 1,000 miles of habitat to 11 species of sea-run fish that haven’t had open, easy access to sections of the Penobscot River for two centuries.
Laura Rose Day, executive director of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, a nonprofit organization formed to bring the river reopening to its fruition, said the Great Works dam removal will be the first “real action” in what has become one of the largest fishery restoration projects in the history of the nation and a global model for similar restoration projects.
The Great Works dam stretches across the Penobscot from Bradley to Old Town. The Veazie dam also is slated for removal in 2013 and 2014, the Milford dam will get a new fish lift and a fish bypass will be built at the Howland dam.
“This project will give sea-run fisheries a good chance of recovery,” Day said of the dam removal efforts.
Dams, overfishing and pollution have drastically cut the number of sea-run fish that make it north of Bangor in the Penobscot. Before humans began altering the river, between 75,000 and 100,000 Atlantic salmon traveled past Bangor on their annual runs, according to the restoration trust’s deputy director, George Aponte Clarke. Today, only about 1,300 make it that far. Between 14 million and 20 million river herring made it upriver in the past, while fewer than 1,000 make it today.
“Salmon are known for being tenacious,” Day said. “They can pass over multiple barriers, but not as many as we have now.”
After the demolition of the dams in Old Town and Veazie and the installation of the bypass in Howland, Clarke said the trust estimates that 4 million to 6 million shad and 10,000-12,000 Atlantic salmon will be able to travel freely upriver. Other species will see gains as well, he said.
Day said the dam removals will open up new recreational and economic development opportunities for communities on the river.
The city of Old Town, in conjunction with Old Town Canoe, the University of Maine and Black Bear Inn, started the Stay and Play program in 2010. Stay and Play features guided “Paddle Adventures,” fishing trips and wildlife expeditions “designed to boost awareness and eco-tourism opportunities in the Old Town area,” according to Old Town Canoe spokesman Lloyd Hall.
He said opening the river will bring more expedition options and much larger runs of fish and also boost opportunities for this and other programs in Old Town.
Gov. Paul LePage chided the dam removal plans during a press event Wednesday at which he announced the first listing of Maine’s “business-friendly” communities.
“I think it’s irresponsible for our country to be taking out hydro dams,” LePage said. “I think we need to put more in.”
LePage said it was “absolutely appalling” that lawmakers this spring couldn’t come to an agreement on a bill that sought to lift a 100-megawatt cap for qualifying hydropower and other forms of energy generation, such as fuel cells and tidal generation.
“They should be ashamed,” he said.
The dam removals will not reduce energy production on the Penobscot, according to the trust. Black Bear Hydro Partners LLC, the owner of the dams, received approval in September 2011 to upgrade the Stillwater and Orono dams to eliminate the energy production gap left by the demolition of the Great Works and Veazie dams.
The company estimates the upgrades will boost the energy capacity of the Orono dam from 2.78 to 6.52 megawatts and the Stillwater dam from 1.95 to 4.18 megawatts.
The complex river restoration deal got its start in 1999, after Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. purchased dams along the Penobscot River. The company soon started having discussions with the state, Penobscot Indian Nation, U.S. Department of the Interior and several Maine conservation groups to hash out solutions to issues involving hydropower relicensing, migratory fish passage and restoration of the river.
That collaboration laid early groundwork for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, and by 2004, the parties had a plan — the Lower Penobscot River Multi-Party Settlement Agreement.
Historically, power companies and conservation groups have been at odds over ecological and hydroelectric issues, but this project found a balance, Day said.
Under the 2004 agreement, PPL would sell six dams in Milford, Orono, Stillwater, Ellsworth, Medway and West Enfield to Black Bear Hydro, and the restoration trust would later purchase the Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams.
Those deals came to fruition. In 2009, PPL sold the six dams and their associated hydropower assets to Black Bear Hydro for $81 million. The next year, the trust bought the dams in Veazie, Old Town and Howland for $24 million with plans to demolish the Veazie and Old Town dams and build a fish bypass in Howland.
The full picture will begin to come together with Monday’s demolition of the Great Works dam, which stretches 1,000 feet across the Penobscot River from Old Town to Bradley.
Demolition is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., with officials including U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal Chief Kirk Francis scheduled to give speeches.
The demolition of the first portion of the dam is set to start around 10:30 a.m.
Ellsworth-based R.F. Jordan & Sons Construction Inc. will take down the dam piece by piece until the project is completed in November, said Jeffrey Hallett, project manager at R.F. Jordan.
The company works mostly on dams, retaining walls and sea walls.
Hallett said an access road built across the river on the downstream side of the dam will allow heavy equipment to reach parts of the dam. An excavator with a hoe ram — essentially a large jackhammer — will start chipping away concrete sections of the dam. The rubble will be hauled off site in dump trucks.
The dam removal contract is for $3.5 million, paid for by the trust.
“The greatest challenge is trying to control the water,” Hallett said. “We are using the powerhouse to control the flow of the water.”
The water level should be lower during the summer and the powerhouse should be able to release enough water to keep the water level behind the dam low enough to allow crews to work, Hallett said.
The Penobscot Indian Nation will host a community luncheon and celebration at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Sockalexis Hall on Indian Island. The hall, which will host several speakers and cultural displays, will open at 9:30 a.m., with a live stream of the demolition starting at 10 a.m.
A full schedule of events may be found at http://www.penobscotriver.org/content/5000/great-works-dam-removal-event.
BDN writer Matt Stone contributed to this report.
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Before humans began altering the river, between 75,000 and 100,000 Atlantic salmon traveled past Bangor on their annual runs, according to the restoration trust’s deputy director, George Aponte Clarke.” Love to see the research behind this fiction; since it seems to ignore the returns of salmon to rivers that have dams and fish-ways, i.e. Conn. and those in New Brunswick.
It also ignores the cyclical variations of alewive runs—–now five ft. deep at the Brunswick viewing window; which are affected not by dams–remember there were big runs up until the 70’s even though the dams were largely in place by the early 1800’s.
No reason whatsoever to take out dams…fishways can accommodate migratory species; unless you like raging rivers washing out everything downstream. the Andro dams not only produce power but throttle down what was once a raging river.
The only people who want the dams removed are the 1% who have the time and money to fish and want a trophy to show for it. Screw them. If we can’t fish and eat our catch; what’s the point?
That’s some truly ‘organic’ matter you wrote gardener. You seem to ignore that there is a upper section to this river that was once teaming with these fish and important to native heritage. You may be seeing alewives down in Brunswick, but the issue is that they aren’t up river in any real numbers and won’t be until they stop bumping their heads on concrete. But hey you clearly know more than the experts who have spent decades studying and understanding how rivers and fish work; you once saw fish through a viewing window.
Your last line is my favorite. Why should anything exist that you personally don’t benefit from? Great logic.
I was thinking the same thing. Id like to see the river restored as much as possible and Id probably never fish it. So I guess Im not a 1%.
As far as dams go, what I support is the idea rebuilding some of these dams so they are more fish friendly as well as more efficient. They would provide some jobs while being refitted, and afterwards would produce electric power from right here in Maine while being about as eco-friendly as possible.
Experts can write pro or con on any issue. It all depends who is paying them. Rivers are to be utilized.. utopia does not and will not ever exist… Cheap electric rate has created great jobs in Madison for the Tomato industry. Dams run mills. Native Heritage my butt. How many of the Natives live off the land 100%???? None, they to like electricity.. The natives of old town have a ton of land in Holeb township that most have never been to and they have to pay their wardens to watch land nobody will ever go to.
Yep, clearly the all powerful alewife lobby out spent the hydro power industry to pay off scientists to do favorable studies over multiple decades, had those studies peer reviewed by other scientists over several more decades then slipped this bogus science past reams of elected officals and state and federal agencies. It’s so obvious I don’t know how I missed it. Those alewives are tricky.
What’s your beef with Native Americans? That was a fairly off topic and not terribly insightful rant.
All the alewife’s are for is lobster bait.
That’s not entirely true and I don’t believe that creating a place to harvest them upstream is one of their goals. Many species of piscivorous fish feed on alewives, shad, herring, etc… If there are more alewives doesn’t stand to reason to think that it may help with other sport and commercial fish species that feed on them.
Since the new state law barring from taking out dams on certain lakes, this will minimize there breeding grounds. No it is not about harvesting upstream but for them to multiply then harvest. It is a poor plan
Yes because there is so much harvest of alewives on the penobscot currently, I’m sure that is exactly what they wanted.
No issue with the natives.. The story plays the natives like liberals use kids in their ads, were doing it for the children. so I responded
Point is to drive up power cost by taking dams out one at a time. Getting alewives for lobster bait., I have not seen any proof alwives have been all the way up the Penobscot. This is a farce from ecologist. Hard to believe Trout unlimited is falling for their plan. Maine has some of the most pristine Trout fishing in the State.
NO one has or HAD any right to impede the flow of our rivers. LePage is wrong on this and so are you.
OH and windmills is the way to go, or electric cars. Sorry to say that Hyrdo is the best way
Another great idea from the ‘intellectually superior’ liberals who are forcing the country into collapse by way of utility rates that will necessarily skyrocket.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An-l4fm7ckU
Yeah that great liberal icon George W. Bush whose administration funded a large portion of this project. Give us break with the partisan hackery.
“the Great Works dam removal will be the first ‘real action’ in what has become one of the largest fishery restoration projects in the history of the nation and a global model for similar restoration projects”
what an absolute embarassment to this once great nation….
At least the Canadians are interested in generating electricity.
We should be upgrading all hydro dams to produce the maximum possible electricity instead of the “pie in the sky” wind energy that only survives because of massive subsidies. The dams produce electricity 24/7/365 and you can’t say that for wind!
Ive been saying that on the upgrade for well over 2 years now
Totally agree.
Yes, and Northern Pike are even more tenacious
2.78 and 1.95MW does not seem like much power. These dams were overdue for an upgrade. The remaining fishways need to more resemble the natural river and not like something designed by an accountant instead of a biologist. It will be interesting to see how this works. The old corporate thinking of “conquering nature” was ill conceived and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved billions of tax dollars by not rushing headlong into the dam building frenzy of years ago. When the dams are removed, the workers could start dismantling the wind turbines. Think of the jobs!!
NRCM = New Religion Conning Mainers
Score another win for the radical enviromentalists. Hydropower is about as clean an energy resource as you can find, but the Luddites who want to support the candle-making and buggy-whip industry keep tearing it down. Senseless!
Hydropower ruins rivers and makes them polluted from all the stagnant water. Id rather see nuclear and oil fired power plants.
You woul rather pollute the air, I am sure you like windmills too.
I have never seen a shortage of salmon on the east or west branch of the penobscot ! I catch them all the time !
Yeah, landlocked salmon. Big deal.
LePage doesn’t like salmon, and shad? Phooey to them. As far as hydro power, my calculat0r says they have increased power by 226%. That’s more than double.
ONe nuclear plant can generate more electricity than all of these dams and every wind mill in the state. I generally agree with LePage but I think he is wrong on this one.
The potential fish stocks in our rivers have far more value than the electricity generated. If you think there isn’t value in lobster bait then think about this state without the lobster industry.
And I am sure your liberal friends would go for a nuclear power plant. Just wait til the Northern Pike get a taste of salmon and alwives. Look at the problem the St. John Valley and Northern Maine have with another species of pike. This has a lot to do with not wanting to destroy trout fishing.
I am sorry I don’t understand your post. Are you saying the dams will protect the trout from pike and muskies?
As for my liberal friends they are not all for wind mills or dams and they are going to need electricity to plug in their electric gocarts. Compromises will have to be made on their part and nukes are the best and least damaging alternative.
The Howland dam will unless people like those who put Northern Pike in Pushaw do it again.
The Howland dam is a major obstruction for them. Once PRRT gets their way, they will have free passage all the way up to the Jo Mary lake of chain and further up. Thankfully the state is preventing them to getting into Sebois and the Piscataquis area.
Give the river a chance.
Recall LePage.
Groups like the Trust, the Conservation Law Foundation, RESTORE and Quimby are all for knocking down all the dams, and cleansing Northern Maine of its residents.
They need to realize that if they attempt that here in Millinocket; we are ready, able and more than willing to fight a long battle.
So Bring It On ________