Officials from Sappi Fine Paper in Westbrook have chosen a plan to construct a fish passage at Saccarappa Falls – a step in a project that would close its hydropower facility on the Presumpscot River in the city’s downtown.
The site has lower and upper falls, each with a section of the dam, and two channels – the western and eastern. The eastern channel is the one closest to the Dana Warp Mill.
Sappi selected the western channel for a fish passageway following a study and public input. The passageway goal is to allow for a variety of fish such as alewife, shad, herring and salmon to migrate upstream.
The fish passageway plan was selected from a pair of options that included fish passages in both channels.
The company’s western channel design decision drew a mixed reaction Wednesday.
The choice is a win-win for recreation and fish, a Westbrook kayaker and businessman said, while a statement released by a river advocacy group criticized the plan.
Seeking approval for its plans, which include removal of the dam and shuttering its hydropower station, Sappi is expected to submit its revised application within the next few months to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The project faces an extensive permitting process.
“The start of construction and dam removal will really depend on the regulatory and permitting process, which is something we have limited control over with timing,” Barry Stemm of the Sappi Engineering Department said in an email to the American Journal on Tuesday. “Hopefully, work will start in late 2016, but again that will depend on a lot of things.”
Westbrook businessman and kayaker Rob Mitchell said Wednesday the Sappi plan boosts recreation, and cited it as the best plan for fish. Mitchell envisions increased business opportunities and for recreation events on the river, with the possibility of incorporating them into Westbrook Together Days activities.
“I think it’s terrific,” Mitchell said about Sappi’s announcement. “I’m very happy.”
But in a statement released Wednesday by Dusti Faucher of Windham, past president and board member of Friends of the Presumpscot River, the group and the Conservation Law Foundation rebuked Sappi’s decision.
“Wrong design. Sappi has refused to adopt the compromise fish passage design agreed to by both the NGO’s (non-government organizations) and the state of Maine – a plan that would be no more expensive for the future generations of taxpayers after Sappi has abandoned the site and left it to the state of Maine to make it work,” the joint statement said.
“Recreational boaters will be disturbed to know that by effectively blocking off an entire channel for fish passage and claiming this is what boaters want, Sappi’s design will fail and the native fishery will never rebound. By contrast, the compromise design that the NGO’s and the Maine Department of Marine Resources support is a win-win-win for boaters, fish, the health of the river, and economic development. It will continue the restoration of the river after 150 years of only industrial use of Saccarappa Falls.”
The Sappi plan calls for a double, side-by-side fishway on the western channel, instead of a single, 4-foot-wide fishway. Stemm said in a statement Tuesday the fish passage design was selected after careful consideration of data, technical information, agency feedback, public comments and stakeholder desires.
The company said in its announcement this week that its plan does not limit future recreational use like kayaking. The $4.5 million project will include fish- counting capabilities. According to company figures, a two-channel design for fish passages would have cost an additional estimated $600,000.
“Hopefully, this fish passage solution will be something that we can all support and work together on going forward, to make this site something we can all be proud of for years to come,” Stemm said.
Engineering, design and construction must be completed by May 2017 to meet a fish passage deadline set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Under the plan, the company would surrender its federal license at the hydropower plant at the Saccarappa site.
Sappi said in a 13-page report that the western channel design is the preferred one and will “proceed with the process of implementing the surrender of its FERC license based on that design.”
In an August public meeting that jammed the City Council chambers, there were some divided opinions on whether the western channel or a two-option channel for passages would be the best choice.
Mitchell in the meeting said he favored the western channel design and said the city has big plans for recreation on the river.
On Wednesday, Mitchell said he has heard from other kayakers about the Sappi decision.
“Everyone is very excited,” he said.
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