Mallison Falls Dam, Presumpscot River, Windham, Maine.
SAPPI REQUIRED TO
RECONNECT PRESUMPSCOT RIVER
After four years of effort, Friends of Sebago Lake, Friends of the Presumpscot
River and American Rivers have won a major victory in their goal of reconnecting
the Presumpscot River to Casco Bay and Sebago Lake.
On October 2, 2003 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued
new 40-year licenses for five hydro-electric dams on the Presumpscot River
owned by South African Pulp & Paper Industries (SAPPI). These dams include
the Saccarappa Falls dam in downtown Westbrook, the Mallison Falls and Little
Falls dams in Gorham and Windham and the Gambo Falls and Dundee Falls dams
in Windham.
The new federal licenses require SAPPI to install fishways for native fish
such as Atlantic salmon, American shad, blueback herring and alewife at
each of the five dams on a schedule controlled by future expansion of runs
of these native fish in the free-flowing Presumpscot River below Westbrook.
"People living along the Presumpscot have been fighting for nearly
300 years to give Atlantic salmon, shad and alewives free passage on this
river," said Roger Wheeler, a resident of Casco, Maine and president
of Friends of Sebago Lake. "Were it not for the hard work of local
citizens, the salmon and shad of the Presumpscot would be denied passage
up the river for at least another half century."
A Dark Past
Prior to the involvement of Friends of Sebago Lake and Friends of the Presumpscot
River in 1999, there were no plans for ever installing fish passage at SAPPI's
five Presumpscot River hydro-electric dams.
This situation was due to the extremely degraded condition of the Presumpscot
River. Up until 1999, the river from Westbrook to Casco Bay was severely
polluted from SAPPI's Westbrook pulp and paper mill and the river was completely
dammed from its head of tide in Falmouth to its source at Sebago Lake, 25
miles upriver.
In July, 1999 SAPPI closed its paper pulping operation in Westbrook, resulting
in a dramatic decrease in the amount of polluted water going into the Presumpscot
River. At the same time, the State of Maine and the non-profit Coastal Conservation
Association of Maine forged an agreement with Central Maine Power to purchase
and remove the Smelt Hill Dam, located at the mouth of the Presumpscot River
in Falmouth.
These developments spurred Friends of Sebago Lake and Friends of the Presumpscot
River to urge state and federal fisheries agencies to consider restoring
the native fish runs of the Presumpscot River -- a notion most people dismissed
as fantasy just a few years before. Because federal dam licenses have terms
of 30 to 50 years, Friends of Sebago Lake was faced with a once in a life
time chance to restore the Presumpscot River to health.
Fight for Your River
The efforts of local citizen groups were buoyed in 1999 when the national
river protection group, American Rivers, named the Presumpscot one of the
ten most endangered rivers in the United States of America. In making this
designation, American Rivers noted that mile for mile, the Presumpscot River
is one of the most heavily dammed rivers in the country, with nearly all
of its free-flowing fish habitat impounded by a 25 mile chain of hydro-electric
dams.
American Rivers, Friends of the Presumpscot River and Friends of Sebago
developed a restoration plan which called for the removal of three of the
five hydro-electric dams -- at Saccarappa Falls, Mallison Falls and Little
Falls. Because these three dams are the smallest of SAPPI's generating facilities
on the river, the plan preserved more than 70 percent of SAPPI's hydro-electric
generation while restoring much of the Presumpscot River's free-flowing
Atlantic salmon, American shad and brook trout habitat. If the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission declined to order these dams removed, Friends of Sebago
and its partners requested upstream and downstream fish passage at all five
dams so that at least some portion of the river's native fish runs could
be restored.
Taken aback by the high level of citizen interest in restoring Presumpscot,
the SAPPI corporation scoffed at the notion of dam removal or any fish restoration.
SAPPI cited official state fishery plans for the river, developed when the
river was severely polluted by SAPPI's wastewater, that ruled out any restoration
of sea-run fish above Westbrook. SAPPI pointed out that the Maine Atlantic
Salmon Commission did not even the list the Presumpscot as an historic Atlantic
salmon river.
In response, state fisheries agencies collaborated to draft an updated comprehensive
fisheries restoration plan for the Presumpscot that set a goal of restoring
all of the river's native fish species to health.
SAPPI then claimed the riverbed of the Presumpscot was wholly composed of
marine clay and would provide no habitat for Atlantic salmon and other fish
if the dams were removed.
In response, American Rivers and Friends of the Presumpscot River hired
a scientific consulting firm to conduct detailed studies of the river bottom
beneath the dam impoundments. These studies proved SAPPI was wrong -- the
bed of the river was mostly gravel with an abundance of spawning habitat
for Atlantic salmon and brook trout.
SAPPI then claimed the natural falls of the Presumpscot at Westbrook were
too steep to allow any Atlantic salmon, American shad and other sea-run
river from migrating up the river prior to dam construction. Based on this
claim, SAPPI said the State of Maine and its citizens had no justification
to call for fish passage for Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish at any
of its dams.
Friends of Sebago Lake responded by conducting a six month effort to locate
historic documents and accounts of the
Presumpscot River prior to its damming. This research found a wealth of
historic documents from the 1600s and 1700s which conclusively proved SAPPI
was wrong. Original documents located
by FOSL showed that throughout the 1700s, settlers and Indians along the
Presumpscot as far upstream as Sebago Lake repeatedly demanded that fishways
be built on the river for Atlantic salmon and other fish; and that on at
least four occasions the government of Massachusetts passed laws requiring
dam owners on the Presumpscot to build fishways for sea-run fish.
Historic research by FOSL president Roger Wheeler showed that in the late
1800s, dam owners on the Presumpscot voluntarily constructed fishways all
the way up to Sebago Lake for Atlantic salmon, alewives and shad. Journal
entries by John Warren, one of the founders of the S.D. Warren paper company,
described Warren himself conducting repairs on the fishway at the company's
dam at the outlet of Sebago Lake.
According to Ronald Kreisman, attorney for American Rivers and Friends of
Presumpscot River, FOSL's historic research
was one of most important factors in winning the legal battle to restore
the Presumpscot River. FOSL's historic research forced the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission to dismiss SAPPI's claims and require full fish passage
on the Presumpscot River for its native Atlantic salmon, American shad and
alewives.
FOSL's historic research and advocacy has proven critical to the State of
Maine's legal defense of its requirement of fish passage at SAPPI's dams
to satisfy state water quality laws. See the accompanying story
for details on this ongoing battle.