Maine Will Remove Two Dams On Penobscot River - WP

[hatrack]

Buying Dams To Save Salmon
Pact to Open Up Maine Habitats
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 7, 2003; Page A08


BOSTON, Oct. 6 -- A coalition of government agencies, environmental groups, a Native American tribe and a power company announced a plan Monday to improve the habitat for threatened Atlantic salmon and other fish in Maine by removing or altering a string of hydroelectric power plants on the state's longest waterway.

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Under the terms of the agreement -- whose adherents include at least five environmental groups, utility PPL Corp., and the Penobscot Indian Nation -- the project will purchase PPL's Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams for approximately $25 million, within five years.
The money will be raised, Day said, from a combination of private donations, and grants from foundations and state and federal government programs.

The Veazie and Great Works dams, on the eastern part of river, will be removed, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will help with the construction of a bypass for the Howland dam, enabling fish to swim around the dam to more than 500 miles of habitat upstream, organizers said. PPL also agreed to improve fish passage at four other Maine dams.

In return for selling those dams, PPL, which owns all of the dams on the lower Penobscot River, will be permitted to boost energy production at six other facilities less disruptive to fish migration, allowing the company to retain 90 percent of its overall power generation. The other parties to the agreement will also drop their opposition to PPL's relicensing efforts at other dams in the state.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53288-2003Oct6.html

[Redneck Socialist]

1. This is great news!

Thanks for posting it. I had not heard this yet.