Deal to Restore Fish Runs

By JOHN RICHARDSON Staff Writer

The Presumpscot River, one of the nation’s first industrial waterways, will be reopened to schools of migratory fish under a historic restoration plan announced Tuesday.

Sappi Fine Paper North America, owner of the former S.D. Warren paper mill in downtown Westbrook, intends to remove the Cumberland Mills Dam by 2011 as part of a preliminary agreement with the Friends of the Presumpscot River and other conservation groups.

The dam is adjacent to the paper mill and is the first obstacle for herring, alewives and other fish that swim upriver from Casco Bay. It had become the focal point of a long-running battle over fish access on the Presumpscot that dates back to violent clashes between American Indians and Maine’s first industrial settlers more than 250 years ago.

Within five years after that dam is removed, the company would install a fish passageway, such as a ladder or lift, at the next dam upriver, the Saccarappa Falls Dam. Migrating fish also would be trapped and trucked farther upstream, and the company would install fish passageways at four more dams as fish populations reestablish themselves, according to the agreement.

The plan will require formal permission from state agencies, as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But it is expected to be finalized by the end of this year.

Gov. John Baldacci issued a statement calling the deal a good compromise and balance between the industrial and ecological uses of the river.

"Today is the beginning of a chance to bring back some of the things that were lost on the Presumpscot River," said Dusti Faucher, president of the Friends of the Presumpscot River.

The group formed in 1991 when the Presumpscot’s native fish runs were widely considered a lost cause by conservationists and government agencies, according to Faucher and others. "People actually moved away from the river, thinking it was lost," she said.

The group of mostly riverside residents was instrumental in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that required Sappi to install future fish passageways at five hydro dams upriver of its mill. And it was pushing the state to mandate a fish passage at Cumberland Mills Dam, which is not federally regulated because it does not generate power.

The agreement means the state review of the dam will be put on hold and, unless the agreement falls apart, dropped.

For years, Sappi had fought the efforts to require fish passage, saying the additional costs of operating its Westbrook mill would make its papermaking business less competitive and would threaten the roughly 330 jobs there.

John Martis, managing director of the Westbrook mill, said Tuesday that the new agreement benefits the company, as well as the environment and the communities along the river that will have new recreational and business opportunities. The agreement will cost the company well in excess of $10 million, he said, but it will spread out the costs over a longer period of time than would have been the case under the federal schedule.

"It’s a little more expensive for us, but it does spread out some of the expenses," he said.

The removal of the Cumberland Mills Dam and engineering work on the mill and the riverbed will cost about $6 million, twice as much as installing a fish passageway. But, Martis said, "It will get the fish up the river easier."

The company uses the Cumberland Mills Dam to create a pond of water it can use for papermaking. As part of the removal project, Sappi will have to install pumps and other equipment to draw water out of a shallower, faster-moving river.

Once the dam is removed, blueback herring, alewives, shad and other fish will quickly start swimming upriver to spawn or eat, said Pat Keliher, director of the Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat in the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Those species will provide fishing opportunities in the river, but also will build up the schools that swim back to the Gulf of Maine, where they serve as feed for everything from cod and tuna to whales.

Keliher said the pond-like river that now flows along Main Street in Westbrook will become a faster-moving and slightly lower stream of water, and much more of a public attraction.

"This will become a striped bass fishery for the city of Westbrook," he said.

Small numbers of Atlantic salmon also will begin to stray back up the river, he said, although there are no plans in the near future to reestablish a migratory population of salmon in the Presumpscot.

Westbrook City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the agreement is good news for the city’s efforts to revitalize the riverfront and the downtown.

The new Presumpscot agreement is similar to a much larger effort to remove dams and construct fish passageways on the Penobscot River. That $50 million effort, however, involves a campaign to raise public and private money to buy and dismantle dams.

Although the Friends of the Presumpscot has spent about 15 years trying to protect and restore the river, the battle over sea-run fish migrations here goes back three centuries.

Abenaki Indians named the river using the word for "many-falls" or "many-rough-places" river. Settlers built the first dams in the 1730s to run lumber, paper, flour and textile mills.

An Abenaki chief named Polin traveled to Boston to urge the Massachusetts governor to install passageways so the native fish could return upriver. The governor agreed but could not enforce the orders on mill owners here.

Polin and his warriors soon began attacking settlements along the Presumpscot. The violence ended in 1756, when Polin was killed next to the river in what is now Windham.

Fish passageways were built in the 1800s but fell out of use as the river became too polluted for the fish. Now the 25-mile river flows through eight dams. The water is clean enough for the fish, but none of the dams is passable.

Faucher, of the Friends of the Presumpscot, said the agreement announced Tuesday could finally bring the river back to life and restore the rapids and falls that gave the river its name.

"I am sure that (Chief Polin) would be pleased," she said.

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:

jrichardson@pressherald.com

[Sidebar]

LEARN MORE ONLINE:

Presumpscot River historical fisheries:

www.tinyurl.com/2gvl93

Sappi’s Westbrook mill:

www.tinyurl.com/266rsl

Regional fishing information:

www.tinyurl.com/26fvpb

(c) 2007 Portland Press Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.