Conservation groups say a flawed federal review of fish passage plans for dams on the Kennebec River could doom endangered Atlantic Salmon.
John Burrows from the Atlantic Salmon Federation said changes approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will not restore fish to the river.
"The only way to do that is to remove some of these dams, and FERC has just written that off," Burrows said.
The environmental impact statement is part of relicensing the Shawmut Dam and updating operations at three other dams between Waterville and Skowhegan owned by subsidiaries of Brookfield Renewable.
The final report late last month accepted Brookfield's plans to improve fish lifts over the dams, shut down turbines and implement other measures to help fish migrate to and from spawning areas upstream.
The federation, along with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Conservation Law Foundation, Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and other opponents told regulators that Brookfield's proposed measures failed to improve fish runs when used at other dams. Only removing the dams would ensure salmon, alewives, eels and other fish would return to the Kennebec, opponents added.
But in responses, commission staff said the agency was unable to recommend decommissioning for three of the dams because they were not being relicensed.
In the case of the Shawmut Dam, Brookfield was not proposing to decommission the structure and could continue generating about 43 megawatts of power a year with environmental mitigation, according to the impact statement.
Commission staff "continue to conclude that decommissioning the Shawmut dam is not a reasonable alternative to relicensing," the agency said.
Burrows, from the Atlantic Salmon Federation, said opponents plan to ask the commission to reconsider its findings.
"Our major concern is that FERC has really ignored the public, the state of Maine, even federal natural resource agencies, who have all pointed out that maintaining all four of these dams and just relying on typical fish ways and fish passage is not going to be enough," Burrows said.
Brookfield White Pine Hydro, in a statement, said it appreciated the commission's work and looked forward to completing the review and turning its attention to the water quality certification process overseen by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
"The relicensing of the Shawmut Dam, like all of our relicensing proposals, is the product of many years of study and consultation with federal and state resource agencies, as well as the public, and is intended to carefully balance public, economic, energy, and natural resource interests," the company said.
