BRADLEY, Maine — Workers began removing the Great Works dam late Monday morning, part of a historic effort to open nearly 1,000 miles of habitat to 11 species of fish that haven’t had open access to the Penobscot River for two centuries.
U.S. Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar joined about 300 conservationists, government officials, tribal leaders and residents to witness the first tangible step in what has been a 13-year push to revive the river.
“Today marks an important milestone for river conservation in America,” Salazar said moments before heavy equipment operators fired up their engines. “Through a historic partnership that exemplifies President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, we are reconnecting 1,000 miles of river, restoring vital habitat for fish and wildlife, expanding opportunities for outdoor recreation, and supporting energy production, jobs and economic growth in communities throughout Maine.”
The Great Works dam stretches across the Penobscot River from Bradley to Old Town. The Veazie dam also is slated for removal beginning in 2013, the Milford dam will get a new fish lift, and a fish bypass will be built at the Howland dam. The project, led by the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, has been called the biggest river restoration project in the eastern U.S. and is expected to cost about $62 million.
Crews from Ellsworth-based R.F. Jordan & Sons Construction Inc. used two excavators with hoe ram attachments — essentially large jackhammers — to break apart the fishway portion of the 1,000-foot-long dam piece by piece. A third excavator scooped up debris and loaded it into a dump truck that hauled the rubble off site.
Demolition is scheduled to be completed in November.
Dams, overfishing and pollution have drastically cut the number of sea-run fish that make it north of Bangor in the Penobscot. Before humans began altering the river, between 75,000 and 100,000 Atlantic salmon traveled through Bangor on their annual runs, according to the restoration trust’s deputy director, George Aponte Clarke. Today, only about 1,300 make it that far. Between 14 million and 20 million river herring made it upriver in the past, while fewer than 1,000 make it today.
Those fish populations will begin to bounce back in the years after the removal of the dams, fishery experts and trust officials have said.
The recovering fish population will boost economic growth and ecotourism opportunities in the Penobscot watershed, according to trust director Laura Rose Day.
U.S. Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree spoke at Monday’s event and U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins sent staff members to read written statements. The politicians lauded the restoration project as an example of collaboration among utilities, conservationists and fisheries groups that at one time clashed over the future of the river.
The restoration trust is made up of 17 conservation groups, the Penobscot Indian Nation, government entities and corporations.
“The restoration of this river would not have been achievable without a commitment to common sense and consensus building,” Snowe said in a statement read at the event. “Together, you have forged a new-century solution to an old-century problem, which will maximize the public benefits of this tremendous river in terms of ecology and energy.”
Salazar announced during the dam removal event that $2.5 million in federal funds will go toward Penobscot River restoration efforts, and Eric Schwaab from the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that agency will kick in another $1 million.
“It’s truly inspiring to see the Penobscot coming back to life, and not just because of what it means for wildlife and people,” said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “This internationally recognized project represents the future of business and government at all levels.”
The Penobscot Indian Nation has been a longtime advocate of the river restoration project and was one of the early members of the trust. During the ceremony, before workers began chipping away at the dam, tribal elder Butch Phillips said the river is an integral part of the tribe’s culture.
“The ancestors are smiling today,” he said.
Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis said the removal of the dams will reunite the tribe with its historic homeland and the customs and traditions that come along with a thriving river, which he described as the lifeblood of the tribe for thousands of years.
“To the Penobscot people, today is about much more than simply removing a dam,” Francis said during the ceremony. “Today signifies the most important conservation project in our 10,000-year history on this great river that we share a name with and that has provided our very existence.”
The dam removals will not reduce energy production on the Penobscot, according to the trust. Black Bear Hydro Partners LLC, owner of the dams, received approval in September 2011 to upgrade the Stillwater and Orono dams to eliminate the energy production gap left by the demolition of the Great Works and Veazie dams.
Gov. Paul LePage criticized the dam removal plans during a press event last Wednesday at which he announced the first listing of Maine’s “business-friendly” communities.
“I think it’s irresponsible for our country to be taking out hydro dams,” LePage said. “I think we need to put more in.”
Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, who spoke at Monday’s event on behalf of the governor, said LePage’s comments stemmed from his support of hydroelectric power as an important asset in Maine’s broader energy policy.
Keliher said the aims of the restoration project are “the embodiment of many of the goals of the LePage administration.”
Those goals include increasing economic and business prospects as well as rebuilding fisheries and reviving the river, he said.
“[LePage] does very much appreciate the long history that has brought the Penobscot project to this stage,” Keliher said. “The positive outcomes for both energy and environment that have resulted are key.”
Keliher said he expected runs of salmon, shad and striped bass to rebound dramatically in the years after the dam removals.
“Though there is no salmon fishing here today, the best chance we have in Maine to once again have a fishery is to fully implement this project,” the commissioner said.
The complex river restoration deal got its start in 1999, after Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. purchased dams along the Penobscot River. The company soon started having discussions with the state, Penobscot Indian Nation, U.S. Department of the Interior and several Maine conservation groups to hash out solutions to issues involving hydropower relicensing, migratory fish passage and restoration of the river.
Under the 2004 agreement, PPL would sell six dams in Milford, Orono, Stillwater, Ellsworth, Medway and West Enfield to Black Bear Hydro, and the restoration trust later would purchase the Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams.
Those deals came to fruition. In 2009, PPL sold the six dams and their associated hydropower assets to Black Bear Hydro for $81 million. The next year, the trust bought the dams in Veazie, Old Town and Howland for $24 million with plans to demolish the Veazie and Old Town dams and build the fish bypass in Howland.
“Today is a great day for the people, fish, wildlife and communities of the Penobscot River,” said Lisa Pohlmann, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “The removal of the Great Works dam, combined with other aspects of the Penobscot River Restoration Project, mean that the largest river in Maine will get a new lease on life.”
Editor’s note: Bangor Daily News Publisher Richard J. Warren is co-chairman of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust’s capital campaign and U.S. chairman of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, one of the partner organizations of the trust.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I wonder if the land owners up stream of the dam are going to enjoy their new mud flats.
In Winslow the embankment has started to colaspe and houses are now in danger of falling into the river.
That was not entirely the fault of dam removal. Some of it was human stupidity and greed. The bank has been stabilized, houses that were built where they shouldn’t have, on refuse dumped on top of clay to make a “yard” so a house could be built, and may or may not have been in danger, have been removed. All this happened some years ago and I’m pleased to bring you up-to-date. I live just up the street from there.
The mudflats thing is a little bit daft, given there is no mud above between the Great Works dam and the Milford Dam. The river bottom is all rock, boulder, ledge and sand. If you were familiar with that part of the river and had walked and canoed it, you would know that. Any silt left on the highest part of the dam impoundment is going to be scoured away with the next rain and the newly exposed shoreline will revegetate in about 1-2 weeks with plant species adapted to living in the floodplain. What will start growing are cardinal flowers.
We don’t need no stinkin’ money from the guv’ment! Isnt there an invisible hand that takes care of this stuff?
” expected to restore cultural fishing”
You need to check out the State guidelines on eating fish!
Warning: Mercury in Maine freshwater fish may harm the babies of pregnant and nursing mothers, and young children.
Safe Eating Guidelines
http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/environmental-health/eohp/fish/2kfca.htm
Dam removal, downstream from Millinocket, and Creepy Ken Salazar shows up, this is a very bad thing.
From the administration that wants to control everything we do, sends their watchdog to Maine (yet one another green mission)-(on the taxpayers dime) to ensure their green project moves ahead.
Got some news for you Ken, we drew the line here in Millinocket, and no slimy politician is going to take our dams, or allow your biggest contributor to establish a National Park.
So Bring It On ________
Brookfield took your dams,
Actually two slimy politicians broke a trust and handed them over, but its gonna be these liberal greenies that will “attempt” to knock down the dams further up river.
Ya
Yay !!!
sure seems to me that this allocation of money could have been better spent, i guess the feds are better educated then i am tho..
Spending $3.5M to get fish, that have not been in the river for 200 years ,back seems like a waste of money and a lot of wishful thinking.
Perhaps that money should have been spent on paving some highways in Maine that feel like they have not been repaved in 200 years!
The fish’s highway is being rebuilt.
highway for Invasive species of Northern Pike, head them up move them up.
True. The Northern Pike have jumped from Pushaw Lake 2 years ago. This ought to make it easier for them to get to good feeding grounds.
Wait till they get a better taste of Salmon and Alewives.
They have been in the river long before the dams were built
Not the Northern Pike, though they will be.
Once again the Luddites, I mean Liberals, are hard at work devolving civilization.
Go plant a flower John. Better yet – try a row of carrots and a few radish. Do something that shows some stewardship for the land and water you exploit in the name of greed. Even better yet – join a grange. A little devolvement leaves something for future generations.
I’m confused as to why these dams were put in, in the first place if they affected the fish species? “The elders are smiling down on us today”?? Can someone please explain why they were put in, and the fish weren’t a concern then? Obviously no one is alive from 200 years ago, but it doesn’t make any sense to me.
They were put in in the name of greed.
How is that?
At the time they were put in there were no rules most dams there were put in were to make power for a company that was near the dams
The law of unintended consequences dictates that there will always be outcomes that no one thought of.
200 years ago, Americans considered the wilderness so vast as to be never ending. We know better now.
This will simply replace one species of fish with another species. Why is one species of fish “bad”, and another species of fish “good”, and who gets to make that decision?
Northern Pike were illegally stocked in Pushaw Lake. They are now in the Penobscot via the Stillwater River.
3.5 million wasted dollars!
Great pictures, anybody have an idea of when the dam was built, seeing that big equipment really puts into perspective to me of what it was like to build that dam “back in the day”.
The first dam at Great Works was built in the 1830s (the “Corporation Dam”) and has been subsequently and periodically enlarged, ripped down (in parts) and rebuilt ( in parts) since then, because all dams require repairs every 20-30 years. The existing dam structure consists of chunks from various dates, some as early as the late 1800s (the timber crib section), some in the 1920-1940s and some from the 1950s and 1960s (the poured concrete sections), all roughly stitched together with the equivalent of chewing gum and scotch tape. I’ve walked along across the entire dam at low water; it’s quite a potpourri of periods and designs. It’s about 800 feet across.
That is amazing, thanks for the info, my relatives didn’t even arrive in Maine from Ireland until 1850’s, mind blowing to think of what was done before 2012 to get where we are.
Goose River in Belfast and Swanville has Dams that should be removed as well.
Some factual and engineering background. Great Works dam is built on a set of bedrock ledges and is pinned into the ledges with long iron bolts hand-drilled in the rock; the various sections of the dam are either poured concrete or timber cribs (boxes of logs filled with river rock). It’s kind of a crazy-quilt, patchwork structure, most of which dates to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Penobscot name for the ledges and rapids at Great Works is (roughly) Matcha-weesis, which means bad, nasty rapids. It is the exact same word as the Passamaquoddy word for the Machias river, wherein the word specifically refers to the steep nasty falls right in downtown Machias where the river goes into saltwater.
The original engineering and surveying plans for the dam are still on file at Joseph Sewall, Inc. in Old Town. These 1800s plans were used to figure out the best and safest way to breach the dam. They are very well drawn, measured and detailed. Good surveying.
Thanks, Douglas! BDN: why wasn’t at least some of this historical information in the article?
just be thankful that the comment section is open; and that thoughtful, informed people participate.
welcome to peer provided content.
great post
Quite a bunch of comments here!
Fish advisory is a good one!
Flushing the sediments will help the issue while it washes silt form spawning areas. Many places have seen fish advisories diminish after cleaning and flushing.
Many sea-run (anadromous) species need fresh water river and stream ares to spawn. Increases in spawning for these populations means large benefits for economy and fisheries and food and traditional living.
bw68″This will simply replace one species of fish with another species. Why is one species of fish “bad”, and another species of fish “good”, and who gets to make that decision?”We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of fish being spawned and returning to spawn year after year. What are you talking about? :)
NO time for more now.
You NAY sayers need to grow to look beyond the reach of your hand to mouth. When is the last ime you walked a river? Ding Dongs…..
We will see progressive grown from fish and environment to economic boosts in everything from lobster bait to guided river stuff to tourism and food.
Now I can see why my comment was removed. All due to Richard J. Warrens affiliation to this dumb idea. Maybe if he spent more time managing his newspaper it would be more profitable for him.
As I read it, the federal government has committed three of the $62million required to make this work.
We, the willing, led by the unknowing/uncaring, believe this will be seen through to its best end . . . why?
I always had a dry sense of humor, but only lately have I been driven to cynicism. I can’t deny it. It’s there, and it comes out every time our Congress lays a hand on something.
any bets on what might happen to the other $59million. Or the $97 million that it might turn into by the time Congress gets done meddling in a project they themselves approved?
Loons, the lot of them.
Don Shields and Paul Bisulca created most of this — and they deserve most of the credit.
Here’s the real story:
1. In c. 1991 Bangor Hydro proposed Basin Mills Dam in Orono.
2. In 1998 Bangor Hydro sold all of its Penobscot Dams to Pennsylvania Power & Light (PPL).
3. In 1999 we met with PP&L and said if you agree to not build Basin Mills and agree to sell us Veazie, Great Works and Howland at a ridiculously high price we will go away and not sue you anymore.
4. Lots of paper changing hands for next 10 years and lots of hard, meaningful work by all parties.
5. The largest river restoration project in the United States. Beacon of hope to the world.
6. It was always about fixing Sedgeunkedunk at Johnny Mac’s. We just restored the Penobscot by mistake.
Some people haven’t read a single word of what has been printed in any paper in 13 years, explaining what was going to happen and what parties were involved in the agreement. That is obvious by some of the comments posted. That includes Paul LePage, who had no idea that anyone was taking down a dam until last week.
His newest apologist, Patrick Keliher, has been assigned the job of explaining what Mr. LePage actually meant when he made his comments last week. Adrianne Bennett must be on vacation this week.
I congratulate all the parties involved in this project. It truly was a historic effort by all involved, and any one of the agencies involved could have mucked it up at any point, but for once they all did as they promised and history was made. Thirteen plus years of hard work paid off, and it shows that federal, state, commercial and private interests CAN work together!
Dirigo!
This is just another disgusting waste of my ancestors money and now mine.
Everyone mentions how great this is however
Veazie stands to lose several hundred thousand
dollars in taxable property. Potential 9% increase
this year; hate to see what happens after next
year. Not to mention that the Veazie dam has
been there since the early 1900’s – a significant
piece of Maine history and Veazie history will
be gone.
The deluge of silt and organic material and heavy metals that have accumulated behind the dam will now be flushed down river to the Gulf of Maine and the phytoplankton will lose their lives when they are smothered with brown water. How will this effect the lobster and other fisheries in Maine. Phytoplankton is their food source. The livlihood of the industry is at stake.
For every action there is a subsequent and equal reaction; this is the law of nature.
Are you sure this started so long ago, as Sal surely gives the credit to our Pres.
The fish have other problems besides those dams. Salmon smolts go out to sea and don’t come back.
very nice video. well put together.
Let’s continue to take down the dams!
enjoy that higher power bill.
So the power sources will vanish into oblivion and after millions upon millions of dollars the great fish may someday return ( maybe ? ) And then what ? The laws will be such that no one will be allowed to fish for them much less be able to afford to. The great salmon runs of yesteryear are just that “history” whether by evolution or the hand of man – they have not returned after all these yrs of money and good effort–its unlikely they ever will.
Just thinking here but how much power could this dam have produced if we put that 3.5 million into generators for this dam?
i remember my first salmon i caught on a fly man i will never forget that jumps and splashing it did , that fish was so shiney in the water and all the runs up and down the rapids . i hope by taking these dams out that somehow my kids and there kids will expeirence that same wild fish that got me hooked on the penobscot river every spring