A Citizen's Guide to Dams, Hydropower, and River Restoration in ...

Dam Removals: Three SuccessesThe Kennebec River – Augusta Rediscoversa Natural ResourceBack to the FutureBefore 1837, from its headwaters atMoosehead Lake to its mouth atMerrymeeting Bay, the Kennebecflowed unimpeded across miles ofrich spawning habitat. The river’sbanks were yet unspotted by mills.Alewives, salmon, American shad,striped bass and sturgeon were insuch abundance that in the early1800s, driftnet fishermen oftencaught thousands of fish in just onenight. Communities looked to theriver as a source of food, water andtransportation.The removal of the EdwardsDam in 1999 has helped clear theway for the Kennebec to be thiskind of river again.The environmental benefits from the 1999 removal of the EdwardsDam in Augusta have greatly exceeded initial expectations –resulting in a rebirth of the river and new found connectionsbetween riverside communities and the Kennebec River.Swimming and fishing along the Kennebec’s westernshores in Fairfield are not what Bob Dionne remembers of hischildhood relationship with one of Maine’s largest rivers. “Igrew up on this river and remember when you wouldn’t putyour big toe in,” Dionne said. Now he owns and operates agrowing business guiding anglers on the river.In the 1950s, mill waste, raw sewage and log drives hadturned the Kennebec into what many citizens viewed as an opensewer. In Augusta, the Edwards Dam, built in 1837, powered atextile mill, the last of nearly a dozen mills originally poweredby the dam. The millprovided hundreds of areajobs but blocked migratoryfish from being able tomove up the river.Breaching of the Edwards Dam on July 2, 1999 wasrecognized with a ceremonial bell ringing, signaling thepassage of one era and the beginning of a new one forthis stretch of the Kennebec River. Thousands of people,including Maine’s Governor and entire congressionaldelegation, participated in this historic event.Over a century earlier, the Kennebec Riverhad been a different place.When Bob Dionne grew up, people still talked of theold Kennebec – the Kennebec with clean water. In anattempt to improve water quality in the river, environmentallaws in the 1970s forced an end to the logdrives and untreated waste dumping. By the 1980s,water quality and the conditions of fisheries hadimproved, but sea-run fish werestill blocked by dams on all ofMaine’s major rivers, including theKennebec, where the EdwardsDam prevented fish from everreaching the 17 miles of primespawning ground above Augusta.By the early 1990s, the millthat was once powered by the damhad burned to the ground and12 A Citizen’s Guide to River Restoration