Company agrees to Saco dam fishways (Saco River, Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061212dams.html

The company that owns nine dams on the Saco River has tentatively agreed to install four new fish passages within the next 20 years on the only dams on the river lacking these facilities.

FPL Energy, which owns two dozen dams in Maine, also plans to build separate passages for eels on all of its dams on the Saco River.

The plans are contained in the final draft of a fisheries agreement that Florida-based FPL Energy and state and federal agencies have been negotiating for the past two years. The parties have not reached a final agreement yet or made the results of their negotiations public, but people involved in the talks say they expect to sign a deal within a month.

<snip>

Unlike salmon, which have been stable in numbers, populations of shad and alewives are on the rise, he said. Officials representing the state Department of Marine Resources in the negotiations pushed for the power company to open up more spawning grounds for these species, Woodruff said. The proposed fish passages would open about 25 miles of river between Bar Mills and Hiram.

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[jpak]

1. This is really good news

Maine has river restoration projects underway on the Kennebec and the Penobscot Rivers too.

The Penobscot Initiative is the largest river restoration project in the eastern US and will open 500 miles of habitat to sea-run fishes - without reducing hydroelectric output.

On the Kennebec, the removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta was a major milestone in restoring historical runs of (endangered) Atlantic salmon as well as shad, alewife, eel and striped bass. The pending removal of the Fort Halifax dam in Windslow will open up most of the Sebasticook river drainage to Kennebec fish runs...

:bounce:

If they get the Androscoggin back in shape, all of the state's major river systems will be restored for anadromous fish runs...