Officials from Sappi Fine Paper will host the next in a series of public meetings regarding the removal of the company’s hydroelectric dams at Saccarappa Falls.
Sappi has announced its intent to file an application to surrender its license for the dams, part of its agreement to establish fish passage at the site by May 2017. At the same time, the company is also filing its application with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for waterway and water quality permits related to its fish passage project.
As part of the application process, the company will also update the public and field questions at the meeting next Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., in Room 114 of Westbrook High School.
In October, Sappi announced that it had selected a design for establishing fish passage at the Saccarappa Dams after almost a year of discussions, engineering meetings and public forums. The company had considered two differing designs.
Saccarappa Falls, flowing past the Dana Warp Mill, has lower and upper falls, each with a section of the dam, and two channels – the western and eastern. The eastern channel runs closest to the Dana Warp Mill.
Sappi selected the western channel design for a fish passageway following a study and public input. The design will open the western channel for fish, allowing alewife, shad and herring to pass upstream. The decision was met with a mixed reaction, as many river advocates saw the alternative “two-channel” design as better for the site.
The two-channel design would have allowed fish to swim up both western and eastern channels, but would have closed off the falls to kayakers.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
