Saturday, July 28, 2007
FOSL Photos
All of the photos taken by Friends of Sebago Lake depicting the shoreline's condition as of 7/07 can be found at foslphotos.blogspot.com or clicking here.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Some Maine Dam History
Richard Fecteau: A little dam history
Friday, July 27, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
If we really need "green power" so badly then we might as well rebuild the Edwards Dam across the Kennebec River in Augusta. Sound absurd? Well it is no more absurd than promoting industrial wind-power development in the protected mountain areas of Maine.
The Land Use Regulation Commission created mountain protection areas above 2,700 feet in 1972 for the simple reason that industrial development was not environmentally acceptable in the fragile alpine and subalpine areas of the Maine mountains.
The current rush to develop industrial wind power in the Maine mountains is reminiscent of the rush to build large hydroelectric dams on Maine rivers during the first half of the last century. Twentieth century politicians saw hydroelectric dams as a sign of progress and economic development much as politicians today see industrial wind-power development as progressive and economically rewarding.
In 1922, the Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. got legislative approval from Maine politicians to dam the Union River above Ellsworth and create 13,000-acre Graham Lake by flooding parts of three towns. Land was purchased under the threat of eminent domain, roads were closed and work started on an earthen dam to impound the river four miles above the center of Ellsworth. Impounding the river to create Graham Lake was such a rush job that Bangor-Hydro never even cut the trees about to be drowned. In the spring of 1923, the impounded waters breached the hastily built earthen dam and flooded all of downtown Ellsworth, whole buildings were swept away that crashed into and broke steel bridges off their abutments along the Union River on Rt. 1 and Main Street. Property damage totaled almost $8 million, at the time the most expensive disaster in Maine history. Lawsuits entailed, which took more than two years to settle and, in the end, the electric utility ratepayers footed the bill. This event marked the end of Ellsworth’s prominence as a shipping center for Down East Maine.
In 1949, Central Maine Power Co. got permission from Maine politicians to dam the Dead River and create 20,000-acre Flagstaff lake for "the public benefit of hydroelectric power generation". Private property was purchased under the threat of eminent domain with legislative approval. Parts of five towns were flooded, three villages had to be moved, along with all the graves in the local cemeteries.
This time the politicians required that the trees be cut before flooding commenced. The brush was burned in immense fires that got out of control and burned out anyone that had dared to resist the political power of CMP. Property owners that had resisted selling to CMP and that were not burned out by the fires were flooded out when the waters held back by the new dam rose during the spring of 1950. The Long Falls Dam, now owned by Florida Power and Light Co. that impounds Flagstaff lake, has never produced electricity, yet it still costs the electric utility ratepayers of FPL almost $1 million per year.
These two examples of political will to put private profits above the public and environmental costs of promoting industrial development can still happen in Maine.
Gov. Baldacci , in the July 12 BDN: "Maine is prepared to host thousands of megawatts of generation capacity from wind and biomass" to serve southern New England’s "insatiable appetite for energy."
Gov. Baldacci has also created a task force to study wind power siting in Maine. This study commission is mostly made up of wind industry employees, consultants and their political supporters.
Corporate interest in industrial wind power has much more to do with profits from taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies than the perceived benefits of "green power." If Maine politicians really want the environmental benefits of being "green," then they should start seriously promoting energy conservation before promoting ill-conceived industrial wind-power development in the protected mountain areas of Maine.
Richard Fecteau is a resident of Farmington.
Friday, July 27, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
If we really need "green power" so badly then we might as well rebuild the Edwards Dam across the Kennebec River in Augusta. Sound absurd? Well it is no more absurd than promoting industrial wind-power development in the protected mountain areas of Maine.
The Land Use Regulation Commission created mountain protection areas above 2,700 feet in 1972 for the simple reason that industrial development was not environmentally acceptable in the fragile alpine and subalpine areas of the Maine mountains.
The current rush to develop industrial wind power in the Maine mountains is reminiscent of the rush to build large hydroelectric dams on Maine rivers during the first half of the last century. Twentieth century politicians saw hydroelectric dams as a sign of progress and economic development much as politicians today see industrial wind-power development as progressive and economically rewarding.
In 1922, the Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. got legislative approval from Maine politicians to dam the Union River above Ellsworth and create 13,000-acre Graham Lake by flooding parts of three towns. Land was purchased under the threat of eminent domain, roads were closed and work started on an earthen dam to impound the river four miles above the center of Ellsworth. Impounding the river to create Graham Lake was such a rush job that Bangor-Hydro never even cut the trees about to be drowned. In the spring of 1923, the impounded waters breached the hastily built earthen dam and flooded all of downtown Ellsworth, whole buildings were swept away that crashed into and broke steel bridges off their abutments along the Union River on Rt. 1 and Main Street. Property damage totaled almost $8 million, at the time the most expensive disaster in Maine history. Lawsuits entailed, which took more than two years to settle and, in the end, the electric utility ratepayers footed the bill. This event marked the end of Ellsworth’s prominence as a shipping center for Down East Maine.
In 1949, Central Maine Power Co. got permission from Maine politicians to dam the Dead River and create 20,000-acre Flagstaff lake for "the public benefit of hydroelectric power generation". Private property was purchased under the threat of eminent domain with legislative approval. Parts of five towns were flooded, three villages had to be moved, along with all the graves in the local cemeteries.
This time the politicians required that the trees be cut before flooding commenced. The brush was burned in immense fires that got out of control and burned out anyone that had dared to resist the political power of CMP. Property owners that had resisted selling to CMP and that were not burned out by the fires were flooded out when the waters held back by the new dam rose during the spring of 1950. The Long Falls Dam, now owned by Florida Power and Light Co. that impounds Flagstaff lake, has never produced electricity, yet it still costs the electric utility ratepayers of FPL almost $1 million per year.
These two examples of political will to put private profits above the public and environmental costs of promoting industrial development can still happen in Maine.
Gov. Baldacci , in the July 12 BDN: "Maine is prepared to host thousands of megawatts of generation capacity from wind and biomass" to serve southern New England’s "insatiable appetite for energy."
Gov. Baldacci has also created a task force to study wind power siting in Maine. This study commission is mostly made up of wind industry employees, consultants and their political supporters.
Corporate interest in industrial wind power has much more to do with profits from taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies than the perceived benefits of "green power." If Maine politicians really want the environmental benefits of being "green," then they should start seriously promoting energy conservation before promoting ill-conceived industrial wind-power development in the protected mountain areas of Maine.
Richard Fecteau is a resident of Farmington.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Good News for Another River
Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said.
Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said.
"Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement.
"We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean."
The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said.
Removing the two dams will allow the Sandy to flow freely from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River.
Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations.
When the dams were built, they ruined a natural fish run that biologists say the fish will rediscover and repopulate once the dams are removed, Fryburg said.
The river is home to winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho salmon, all listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, Portland General Electric said.
"Steelhead and salmon need free-flowing rivers to survive," said Mike Myrick, a member of the Sandy River Chapter of Northwest Steelheaders. "Removal of Marmot Dam is a historic moment in salmon recovery taking place in the backyard of metropolitan Portland."
The dam removal will take 22 megawatts of power generation capacity from Portland General, leaving it with hydro capacity of 487 megawatts.
The Marmot Dam has a fish ladder but once the dam is destroyed, the fish will be able to pass without a ladder made by humans, Fryburg said.
---
The six tiny hydro dams on the Presumpscot River produce in total less than 10 megawatts. They impound and flood nearly all of the Presumpscot River from Westbrook to Sebago Lake. None are planned for removal.
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said.
Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said.
"Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement.
"We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean."
The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said.
Removing the two dams will allow the Sandy to flow freely from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River.
Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations.
When the dams were built, they ruined a natural fish run that biologists say the fish will rediscover and repopulate once the dams are removed, Fryburg said.
The river is home to winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho salmon, all listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, Portland General Electric said.
"Steelhead and salmon need free-flowing rivers to survive," said Mike Myrick, a member of the Sandy River Chapter of Northwest Steelheaders. "Removal of Marmot Dam is a historic moment in salmon recovery taking place in the backyard of metropolitan Portland."
The dam removal will take 22 megawatts of power generation capacity from Portland General, leaving it with hydro capacity of 487 megawatts.
The Marmot Dam has a fish ladder but once the dam is destroyed, the fish will be able to pass without a ladder made by humans, Fryburg said.
---
The six tiny hydro dams on the Presumpscot River produce in total less than 10 megawatts. They impound and flood nearly all of the Presumpscot River from Westbrook to Sebago Lake. None are planned for removal.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Hayden Bog -- Destroyed
The following photos, taken on July 22, 2007 by Doug Watts and Roger Wheeler, depict the destruction of Hayden Bog at Long Point on Sebago Lake in Standish, Maine due to artificially maintained water levels at Sebago Lake.
These photographs depict a southern Maine springfed peat bog being destroyed in July, 2007. Normally, at this time of year, most of the water you seen in the pictures would not be present. Instead of wide pools of water, the bog would feature a narrow, deep brook with noticeable current, joined at spots by smaller brooklets. Because Hayden Bog is just slightly above the elevation of Sebago Lake, which it flows into, the artificially high water levels of Sebago now act as a "dam" at the mouth of Hayden Bog and prevent the bog from reaching its normal (low) summer water level. The result is the conversion of the bog's wetted area into enormous masses of filamentous algae which prevents virtually anything from living in the water, including normal, native aquatic plants and aquatic insects. The bottom of the bog is carpeted with thick plumes of pink, green and grey filamentous algae.
These photographs depict a southern Maine springfed peat bog being destroyed in July, 2007. Normally, at this time of year, most of the water you seen in the pictures would not be present. Instead of wide pools of water, the bog would feature a narrow, deep brook with noticeable current, joined at spots by smaller brooklets. Because Hayden Bog is just slightly above the elevation of Sebago Lake, which it flows into, the artificially high water levels of Sebago now act as a "dam" at the mouth of Hayden Bog and prevent the bog from reaching its normal (low) summer water level. The result is the conversion of the bog's wetted area into enormous masses of filamentous algae which prevents virtually anything from living in the water, including normal, native aquatic plants and aquatic insects. The bottom of the bog is carpeted with thick plumes of pink, green and grey filamentous algae.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Comparison
Songo Beach, Sebago Lake State Park, July 21, 2007. Lake level 265.3 msl.
Same spot. Summer, 1960s.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
FOSL Newsletter, Summer 2007
No FERC license still - Last January DEP asked SAPPI to withdraw their State water quality certification application for the Eel Weir dam hydro project. SAPPI complied. This has delayed issuance of a FERC license for at least a year. SAPPI must reapply next January. According to DEP, the licensing delay is necessary because a lower river flow model must be developed that reflects the changing condition of the lower river. In 2001 the Smelt Hill Dam was removed coinciding with a substantial reduction in waste discharges from the SAPPI mill in Westbrook. These two changes have improved dissolved oxygen in the lower river.
FOSL supports a Flow Model- FOSL has mailed a letter to FERC outlining why a
Steve Kasprazak also wrote a letter in support of a flow model. A flow model with real time monitoring would provide flood warnings and information for making decision that could help ameliorate a flood. The Patriot’s Day storm was a scary reminder of how poorly this lake is managed for flood prevention. Steve’s letter clearly shows how fast
More Erosion Damage
Erosion damage was severe on many west shore properties.
The damage occurred when levels were one foot below full pond. FOSL has informed FERC and other agencies of the damage.
Let’s Blog
All FOSL members should receive the username and password. These may be passed on to trusted people. The blog will also be open to other lake organizations like ourselves.
Username________________ password__________________
New FOSL poster is available. This poster has 3 then and now beach comparisons. Email friendsofsebago@yahoo.com if anyone would like a copy(ies). The web address on the poster(oops) should be www.friendsofsebago.org
An Agreement with SAPPI and River organizations:
An agreement with Friends of the Presumpscot(FOPR) and SAPPI have been reached for removing Cumberland Mills dam and creating fish passage on other dams. FOSL in an intervenor in the lower river dam relicensing and will comment on these events. FOSL does not share the perceived enthusiasm for this agreement for many reasons. From experience we learned that SAPPI does not honor agreements. The time frame is so distant that we have to wonder if SAPPI will even exist in Westbrook in ten years or 30 years as projected in the agreement. FOSL believes that according to law, upstream and downstream fishways should be present on all dams of the Presumpscot. FOSL was completely left out of the negotiations and was not even aware they were occurring.
President’s message: The present LLMP is bad for beaches, flood prevention, lake wetlands, the ecosystem and water quality. The FERC proposed LLMP is a slight improvement in that the maximum target point has been dropped 6 inches to 266.15 msl but accepting this new plan dooms
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