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Environmentalists Broker Deal to Demolish Dam 10/8/03 There should be little doubt who is dictating public policy in the United States. An environmental coalition agreed to pay PPL Corporation, the power company that operates dams on Maine's Penobscot River, $25 million to tear down two dams to aid in the recovery of Atlantic salmon. The environmentalists generously allowed the power company to increase power generation on six other dams on the river, meaning Maine residents will only lose ten percent of their current energy source. Observers believe the "voluntary" agreement will pave the way for the removal of other dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers in the Northwest to improve the recovery of the Pacific salmon. "This could be used as a model across the country," said Andy Goode, vice president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation's American program. The groups have five years to raise the $25 to $27 million to close the deal and, as usual, they aren't going to put up their own money, but expect the dam removal will be paid for by federal and state grants (taxes) and private donations. Agreement in Maine Will Remove Dams for Salmon's Sake
OLD TOWN, Me., Oct. 6 — Legions of wild Atlantic salmon once surged through Maine's rivers, but for decades their numbers have been shriveling to a hapless handful. Years of efforts to bring them back by banning salmon fishing, stocking the rivers with millions of fish, cleaning up pollution and even tracking fish with transponders have failed time and again. But on Monday an unusual agreement was announced between a coalition of environmentalists and the power company that operates dams on Maine's largest river, an agreement many environmentalists believe stands a good chance of saving the struggling salmon, along with a dozen other species of faltering fish. Under the agreement, two dams on the sprawling Penobscot River are to be torn down, removing important barriers to salmon returning from the ocean to the river to spawn. A third dam will be decommissioned, and a bypass will be built around the structure so the salmon can pass. In exchange, the environmental coalition will pay the power company, the PPL Corporation, about $25 million. And PPL will be able to increase its power generation on six other dams on the Penobscot and its offshoots, recapturing about 90 percent of the power it will lose when the dams are demolished. The environmentalists also agreed to drop legal challenges to the relicensing of the dams by the federal government. "This is the most important effort in 100 years to restore Atlantic salmon in the United States," said Gov. John Baldacci of Maine, speaking Monday on the banks of the steel-gray Penobscot in this river town 15 miles north of Bangor. Eric Ruff, a spokesman for the federal Department of the Interior, called the deal "a groundbreaking conceptual agreement," and said it was good for the environment, energy development and the state. Several of those involved in the agreement said Monday that they hoped its amicable resolution and creative compromise would serve as a template for other areas of the country where environmentalists and power companies have locked horns. But others, including Interior officials and those in the power industry, said it was too early to tell if Maine's formula could apply elsewhere. The Maine agreement will open 500 miles of the Penobscot, the river that embraces by far the largest remaining population of Atlantic salmon in the country, environmentalists say. After the dams come down, the salmon in the river will quickly increase to at least 10 to 12 times their current number of about 1,000, said Everett Carson, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a member of the environmental coalition. Atlantic salmon, majestic and acrobatic fish that can reach up to 50 pounds, have fallen on such hard times in Maine that three years ago, salmon in eight of the state's rivers were added to the endangered species list. "This is the single best chance, maybe the last chance, to restore Atlantic salmon," said Chris Wood, a vice president of Trout Unlimited, one of the environmental groups. "This in one fell swoop restores a river system that drains one-third of the state of Maine." And, he added, "let's not forget the less charismatic fish." The deal is also expected to help shad, alewives, shortnose sturgeon, blueback herring, tomcod and rainbow smelt. "Sturgeon and striped bass will have an excellent opportunity to reestablish populations in Maine," said Steven A. Williams, director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "American eel are in serious decline, but increased fish passage will open the river for them. Bald eagles and other birds will have increased foraging opportunities. "Fish deaths from turbines as well as stress and nonlethal injuries will be eliminated or reduced." Environmentalists and power company representatives said it was unusual for a utility to agree to the removal of dams. In most cases, dams have been removed under pressure from government agencies, from lawsuits by environmentalists, or in the course of bankruptcy filings. For example, the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington State is scheduled to come down in 2006 because its operator, Pacificorp, opted to remove the dam rather than pay the $30 million needed to meet federal requirements to make it less harmful to fish. Environmental groups say a turning point came when the Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River came down in 1999, becoming the first dam in the country to be ordered demolished by the federal government, against the utility's will. Within months, several species of fish made strong comebacks in that river. Since then, about 100 of the nation's 75,000 dams have been torn down. "Many times companies don't get compensated for these dams," said Paul Wirth, a spokesman for PPL. "We're being compensated fully for these dams, not only for the market value of the dams but for the future revenues from these dams." By all accounts, the negotiations, which took more than two years, were initiated by PPL, an Allentown, Pa., company that took over the hydroelectric generation on the Penobscot in 1999. Walking into a contentious climate, in which environmentalists had already blocked the rebuilding of one dam and the construction of another, and were challenging the relicensing of other dams, PPL executives decided to see if all the interested parties could reach a compromise. "We had many junctures where it would have been anybody's reasonable guess that we wouldn't come to an agreement," said Laura Rose Day, the project director for the environmental coalition. The agreement was aided by the shape and flow of the Penobscot, which has several broad offshoots that branch off and rejoin the river's main stem. The environmentalists ultimately agreed that if PPL increased power generation on the dams on the river's offshoots, the environmental cost would be small compared with the gain from closing dams on the river's main stem, Ms. Rose Day said. PPL also agreed to improve fish passages at its remaining dams, constructing, for example, lifts or elevators instead of the small concrete fish ladders that exist now. Before the dams come down, the environmental coalition has to raise $25 million to $27 million to buy them. The groups expect the money to filter in over the next five years from federal and state grants and private donors. Also involved in the negotiations was the Penobscot Indian tribe, whose reservation is on Indian Island in the middle of the Penobscot. The Indians have a historical right to catch fish in the river with nets and spears, but they have not been able to practice that cultural ritual for years, said Chief Barry Dana. "I remember my grandfather recalling the days you could walk across the backs of salmon and not get your ankles wet," he said. Maine officials also hope the agreement will help foster economic revitalization of communities along the river, drawing recreational fishermen and kayakers. One ritual discontinued in 1992 might be restored: the presentation of the first salmon caught in the river to the president of the United States. Some of the parties to the agreement believe such negotiations ought to be applied to situations as contentious as the fight over the effect on Pacific salmon of dams on the Snake River on the West Coast. "We're reconfiguring hydro power instead of removing power," said Andy Goode, vice president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation's American program. "This could be used as a model across the country." But Jim Owen, a spokesman for Edison Electric Institute, a trade group for investor-owned power companies like PPL, said "it's too early to tell if this can be a template." And Mr. Ruff of the Interior Department suggested that such agreements would be harder to come by in the West because dams there are bigger and produce more power than those on the Penobscot. For now, both sides seem content to celebrate their meeting of the minds in Maine. "I can't predict whether this will work other places," said George D. LaPointe, the commissioner of Maine's Department of Marine Resources, "but it's certainly a good recipe." |