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The report, called an environmental impact statement, is meant to help FERC’s five politically-appointed commissioners issue a final decision on owner Brookfield Renewables’ applications to renew one dam’s license and amend those of three others. If approved, then the final hurdle for Brookfield to operate the dams for decades to come is a water quality certification from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
Wabanaki officials and a coalition of Maine environmental nonprofits staunchly criticized the report’s findings after its release, claiming the fish passage modifications recommended by FERC staff are flawed, citing similarly modified New England dams that have been ineffective.
Without augmented fish passage standards, these groups worry the dams will result in the collapse of endangered Atlantic salmon and sturgeon populations. Ideally, they would like to see the dams removed altogether.
“Failure to remove mainstem dams on the lower Kennebec River will undermine salmon recovery efforts of Wabanaki in the Penobscot and Wolastoq-St. John Rivers and jeopardize the future of our sustenance fishing heritage,” said Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis and Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Chief Clarissa Sabattis in a joint statement.
Under FERC’s recommendations, Brookfield would be required to scale back operations of all four dams during fish migration seasons and install new fishways at the Lockwood Project near Winslow and the Shawmut Project north of Fairfield.
The company would also have to study how effective the dams’ new fish protections are and report back to state and federal agencies, a continuation of Brookfield’s “many years of study and consultation with federal and state resource agencies, as well as the public… to carefully balance public, economic, energy, and natural resource interests” during the relicensing process, a Brookfield spokesperson said in a statement.
FERC’s suggested plan is far leaner than proposals from the Maine Department of Marine Resources to bolster the dams’ technical fish protections, set higher standards for fish passage and require Brookfield to implement detailed plans if the protections prove ineffective.
DMR’s suggestions were dismissed by FERC for being too ineffective, burdensome, or unrealistic.
One recommendation was that Brookfield add a nature-like fishway along the shore of the Shawmut Project, allowing fish to skirt the dam through a manmade stream, and upgrade a grated structure that prevents juvenile fish from getting chewed up in the turbines to standards set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
FERC staff declined both proposals, claiming that the new nature-like fishway could divert fish away from the more effective technical lift and, like the narrower grates, would not be worth the additional cost.
FERC did not share DMR’s concerns that fisheries would be harmed if there weren’t defined procedures and a schedule for designing and constructing additional fishways if FERC’s proposed changes fail to meet passage standards.
“It takes time to design new fishways and to understand the reasons why the existing fishways might be ineffective,” according to a FERC statement.
Environmental advocates see this as one of the major weaknesses in FERC’s findings, suggesting the dams could conflict with protections for Atlantic salmon under the Endangered Species Act if detailed contingency plans aren’t put in place.
“The Plan B is really ambiguous,” said John Burrows, executive director of U.S. operations for the Atlantic Salmon Federation. “There's no, ‘Okay, we build this, we test it, it fails. What's next?’ And I think that's a major flaw here. For Atlantic salmon, we don't have decades, and we really need to see significant, meaningful change now.”
An official with the DMR also criticized FERC’s proposed measures, calling them ineffective.
“The Department does not believe that the measures … will result in meaningful restoration of sea-run fish into the Kennebec River above the four dams,” said Sean Ledwin, director of DMR’s Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat.
In a statement, FERC officials said they addressed all comments on a previous iteration of the report in this latest draft, promising to consider them once more before issuing a final decision.
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