BANGOR, Maine — The U.S. Coast Guard announced Monday that it is sending three ships to break ice in order to mitigate potential ice jam flooding on the Penobscot River near Bangor on Tuesday.
Coast Guard Sector Northern New England has been monitoring ice levels on the Penobscot River with the assistance of Maine Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, a Coast Guard official said in a news release.
The agencies have been meeting weekly to assess the risk of flooding in Bangor and other communities along the river. The Coast Guard intends to use three ice breaking cutters to clear a safe path for ice to flow out to sea.
The 140-foot Rockland-based cutter Thunder Bay, along with 65-foot Rockland-based cutter Tackle and Southwest Harbor-based cutter Bridle will take part in the operation that could last as long as three days.
The Coast Guard’s goal is to clear the ice south of the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge. However, ice conditions and the navigational limitations of the ice cutters may not allow that to occur until the ice thins.
“The cold temperatures this winter created a lot more ice than normal,” Lt. David Bourbeau, chief of waterways management at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, said.
“The ice breakers really have their work cut out for them, but it’s important we get the waterway open so that runoff has somewhere to flow when the ice starts melting and before a major rain event,” he said.
Coast Guard ice-breaking operations are expected to begin near Brewer about noon on Tuesday and will be visible from the shoreline and bridges connecting Bangor and Brewer.
Similar efforts are planned for the Kennebec River next week, according to the Coast Guard.
In early March, the Coast Guard said that this winter’s repeated storms and record cold conditions hampered its ice cutting operations on the Penobscot, raising concern among some officials that ice jams could cause flooding in the spring.
At that time, the Coast Guard’s 65-foot ice breakers were unable to get within a half-mile of the Veterans Remembrance Bridge that connects Bangor and Brewer, according to Chief Warrant Officer and ice mission manager Bob Albert.
Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency Director Michelle Tanguay said officials were not sure how thick the ice was, but that Coast Guard boats normally can break through about 18 inches of ice.
The cutters usually come as far up river as the Sea Dog Brewing Co. near the mouth of the Kenduskeag Stream, according to Tanguay.
Since the removal of the Veazie Dam in 2013, some officials have expressed concern that without Coast Guard ice breaking operations, ice jams could form as large sheets of ice normally broken by the dam make their way down the river.
That could cause flooding, they said.