Operational Plan for the Restoration of Diadromous Fishes to the ...

Options under the Multiparty Settlement Agreement (MPA) were a bypass channel
without trap and sort facilities, or removal of the dam. Construction of the bypass
channel rather than dam removal was the preferred alternative by the restoration
parties as engineering design and hydraulic modeling showed a bypass channel
could be constructed and provide free-swim upstream and downstream passage at
the Howland dam, rather than necessitating dam removal. Thorough evaluation and
engineering design of trap and sort facilities to prevent further upstream movements
of pike into the Piscataquis River drainage through the bypass channel
were conducted concurrently. This evaluation determined trap and sort facilities to
be unfeasible in meeting restoration goals.
The fisheries agencies and other parties agreed to undertake a formal risk
assessment of potential pike movements through the channel and into upstream
sub-drainages. This risk assessment seeks to document the timeline of events
relating to the documentation of pike and the PRRP, the ecological risk of pike on
native species, patterns of natural dispersal and human introductions, and focus
areas for action. The section concludes with management actions to reduce the
impact of pike above the Howland bypass.
Background
In June 2004, PPL Corporation (PPL), state and federal resource agencies, the
Penobscot Indian Nation (PIN), and various NGOs, signed the Lower Penobscot
River Multiparty Settlement Agreement (MPA), which led to the Penobscot River
Restoration Project (PRRP). This unprecedented and historic agreement provides
the Penobscot River Restoration Trust (Trust), a non-profit organization, the option
to purchase three dams from PPL, decommission and remove the two lowermost
dams on the main stem of the river (Veazie and Great Works), and decommission
and pursue construction of an innovative experimental fish bypass around the
Howland dam, located upstream on the Piscataquis River.
Under the Multi Party Agreement (MPA), the Trust was required to seek a “prior
determination” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Departments of
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Marine Resources, the Maine Atlantic Salmon
Commission, and the PIN that the proposed bypass “will provide safe, timely, and
effective fish passage sufficient to allow the fisheries management goals and
objectives of the Resource Agencies and PIN to be met.”
During the design process, in consultation with the fisheries agencies, the Trust
developed an “Outline for Preliminary Design of Proposed Howland Fish Bypass”,
which describes the information needed by the agencies to make their “prior
determination.” At the request of several agencies, this included the following:
The preliminary design will also evaluate the feasibility and costs (including
operating costs) of incorporating provisions for trapping/sorting/counting of
fish using the bypass. This includes measures to exclude upstream migration
of northern pike and black crappie, both of which do not now exist above the
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