UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
before the
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION
SAPPI, Inc. FERC Project No. 2984
Eel Weir Project
Sebago Lake, Maine.
RE: Scoping Comments for FERC Project No. 2984
Scoping Comments of Friends of Sebago Lake (FOSL)
Intervenor Friends of Sebago Lake ("FOSL") respectfully offers
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("Commission") the following
comments, recommendations and supporting evidence for these recommendations
in response to the Scoping Document 1 (SD-1) issued by the Commission for
the Eel Weir hydroelectric project (FERC Project No. 2984). These comments
and recommendations are intended to supplement oral testimony provided by
FOSL members at the Commission's public scoping meeting held on October
22, 2002 at the Windham High School, Windham, Maine.
Friends of Sebago Lake recommends the Commission conduct an EIS for this
project rather than an Environmental Assessment. An EIS is warranted based
on the facts stated below.
Under NEPA, an EIS is required for "major federal actions significantly
affecting the quality of the human environment" (42 U.S.C. §4332(2)(C)).
"Significant" is further defined in the Council on Environmental
Quality's regulations 40 C.F.R. §1508. Each of the following consequences
of the projects requires the Commission to prepare an EIS: violation of
water quality standards (40 C.F.R. §1508.27(b)(2); impacts on recreation;
impacts on fish and fish habitats; the controversial nature of the proposal
(40 C.F.R. §1508.27(b)(9); cumulative impacts.
A. Violation of Water Quality Standards. The lack of fish passage at the
Eel Weir Dam for the indigenous, non-anadromous Atlantic salmon of Sebago
Lake and the upper Presumpscot River is a violation of Maine's water quality
standards (Title 38 M.R.S.A. §464 et seq.) which requires that the
"receiving water" be of sufficient quality to support its indigenous
fish species. Due to the lack of fish passage at the Eel Weir Dam, the upper
Presumpscot River is unable to support self-sustaining populations of its
indigenous Atlantic salmon (ie. landlocked or "Sebago" salmon).
B. Impacts on Fish and Fish Habitats. The lack of fish passage at the Eel
Weir Dam directly prevents the native non-anadromous Atlantic salmon of
Sebago Lake from utilizing their historic spawning and rearing habitat in
the upper Presumpscot River; and is the sole factor preventing the re-establishment
of a native, self-sustaining population of these Atlantic salmon to their
historic habitat in the upper Presumpscot River.
C. Cumulative Impacts. The lake level management regime in operation at
the Eel Weir Dam continues to cause substantial shoreline erosion at Sebago
Lake. This operating regime is causing the recession and inundation of the
lake's unique and extensive natural beaches, unnatural levels of phosphorus
inputs to the lake, and destruction of the extensive archaeological resources
on the shoreline of Sebago Lake.
D. Impacts on Recreation. Erosion, inundation and recession of the natural
beaches of Sebago Lake due to the existing operating regime of the Eel Weir
Dam prevents citizens from utilizing the natural beaches of the State of
Maine's Sebago Lake State Park and other natural beaches on the lake for
recreation during the summer months. The lack of a fishway at the Eel Weir
Dam prevents the re-establishment of the historic and valuable recreational
fishery for large (3-7 pound) wild Sebago salmon in the upper Presumpscot
River.
The precedent for using an EIS rather than an EA for assessing the impacts
of the Eel Weir Dam was established by FERC (1997) when it issued an EIS
(rather than an EA) for the sole purpose of establishing a lake-level management
plan for Sebago Lake after complaints were made by citizens regarding the
Applicant's unilateral alterations to the lake's historic management regime
in 1987 (FERC FEIS-0106-F). The failure of the lake-level management plan
adopted in FERC (1997) to stop ongoing shoreline erosion of Sebago Lake,
and the fresh examination of other issues excluded from the 1997 EIS, including
violations of Maine's water quality standards due to the lack of fish passage
at the Eel Weir Dam, fully satisfies the criteria for an EIS as set forth
by the Council on Environmental Quality in 40 C.F.R. §1508.
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