Kennebec River

The Maine Department of Marine Resources says nearly 1,500 salmon have returned to dams in Orono and Milford along the Penobscot River this year, and about 150 have been counted at two dams along the Kennebec.

The conservation groups say they will now take their fight to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the dams' licenses.

The announcement from Sappi North America came two days after the mid-term election, where the future of the Skowhegan mill itself had been a flashpoint in Maine's gubernatorial race.

Shawmut is one of four dams that Brookfield Renewable U.S. owns along the Kennebec River. And it has become the latest flashpoint in Maine's decades-long debate over how to restore habitat for Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish while preserving jobs and tax revenues that rely on the dams.

A bill that would change the state's water quality rules is pitting the Maine Senate's top Democrat against the administration of Gov. Janet Mills', in a dispute over a Kennebec River dam, a mill that relies on it, and endangered Atlantic salmon.

The lawsuit contends that the Department of Marine Resources improperly helped the Department of Environmental Protection draft fish passage policies.

Regional businesses are squaring off against conservation groups over the federal relicensing of a 100-year-old dam on the Kennebec River in Benton.

Federal energy regulators say the Kennebec River's population of endangered Atlantic Salmon can be protected without removing four hydroelectric dams, and conservation groups are dismayed by the finding.

The lawsuit, from a U.S. Subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable, is challenging a proposed amendment to the state's river management plan, which would recommend stricter fish passage requirements.

BATH, Maine - The Navy is hoping for a permit to dredge some of the Kennebec River to allow the passage of destroyers built at Bath Iron Works.The Times…