Critics of a proposed hydropower project at the mouth of the Pennamaquan River in Pembroke have sent reams of concerns to federal regulators about what the developers will need to study before the project moves ahead.
Some of the most strident opposition comes from the Passamaquoddy Tribe, whose leaders argue that a tidal power project could wipe out a lucrative elver fishery in the region.
The batch of filings sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission set off the next major step for studying the effects of the proposed $125 million Halcyon Tidal Power project, which would span 1,616 feet between Leighton Neck and Hersey Neck.
Comments filed earlier this month identify where state regulators, environmental groups and private citizens believe the company’s proposed study fell short, with recommendations ranging from more detail on the proposed eelgrass study to the possible impact on existing tidal projects in Cobscook Bay belonging to Ocean Renewable Power Co.
But Maine tribal officials were more terse in their comments.
“The Passamaquoddy Tribe has put FERC on notice that we are categorically opposed to the development of this project,” Newell Lewey, a Passamaquoddy tribal councilor and member of the Pennamaquan Tidal Power Advisory Committee, said in a prepared statement. “This estuary is the heart of our elver fishery, it is rich in resources, and we object to any project that will negatively impact our traditional territory and our fisheries.”
Control over the lucrative elver fishery and others have been a persistent trouble for the tribe during the past two years. In April, the tribe acquiesced to state pressure to institute individual quotas for its elver fishermen, with leaders saying they feared for tribal fishermen’s safety after Gov. Paul LePage indicated he might ask the National Guard to assist in the event of any riverside confrontations.
Newly elected tribal chief Frederick Moore III penned the letter to federal regulators sent Oct. 18, stating that the tribe declined to comment on the specifics of the proposed study.
“We will not consult with the applicant because the proposed project will cause an unacceptable destruction to our homeland, and there is no way to mitigate this damage,” Moore said in the letter.
In the letter, tribal officials requested a meeting with FERC.
The tribe’s comments stood out in the batch of comments from interested parties such as the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which said it had few bones to pick with the study plan, saying it would likely suffice for state water quality and waterway development permits. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife suggested six additional studies of area wildlife impacts.
How the study moves ahead “will define the baseline” for studies of similar hydropower projects, according to Louis Chiarella, a regional official with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
“The proposed project is the first of its kind in the northeast U.S. region, with great potential to impact existing trust resources,” Chiarella wrote.
The study was the focus of multiple meetings during the summer, which identified the scope of about 45 studies associated with the project, an assessment the company’s chairman and chief technology officer said would be the “most comprehensive” ever proposed for a tidal energy project.
The Nature Conservancy, which owns an 81-acre preserve that abuts the river, also requested more detail for how the study would affect the bay’s ecosystem and highlighted reasons for higher scrutiny of the project’s impacts, writing that the area is an internationally significant staging area for shorebirds and has the highest diversity of shallow-water invertebrates north of the tropics on the Atlantic coast.
A local opposition group formed as the Pennamaquan Tidal Power Advisory Committee was more verbose, however, submitting 62 pages detailing numerous parts of the proposed study that its members don’t like. Those comments followed “a substantial amount of research,” according to Robin Hadlock Seeley, a member of the advisory group.
“We share the concerns of federal and state agencies that this complex and productive estuarine ecosystem that harbors marine life, including fish, shellfish, shorebirds, seaweeds and marine mammals, and supports a fishing economy, is likely to experience significant negative impacts, not only from the construction phase of this project, but from its operation over its 120-year lifespan,” Seeley said in a statement.
The company’s leaders have said they estimate the tidal project would employ about 150 to 200 people during construction, 40 to 60 people during operation and would almost double the town’s real estate tax collections with $1 million in new revenue to start. It would generate an estimated 80,000 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power about 13,000 homes.
The company still has a long process ahead toward approval and construction, which would apply for licensing in late 2016, at the earliest.
In September, FERC granted Halcyon first dibs on seeking licensing for a project at that location.
In a schedule sent out by FERC, the company is required to revise its study plan by Nov. 17, which will be subject to a determination a month later. Next summer will be the project’s first study season, and a second study season will be added if necessary, which could push a licensing application back further.
FERC estimated the project would apply for licensing in December 2016.