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An environmental group has reportedly offered to buy four Kennebec River dams long targeted for removal, marking a major step in resolving a long political and economic dispute between conservationists and the owner of the dams.
The Nature Conservancy made an offer for four Kennebec River dams owned by an offshoot of the multinational Brookfield Corp., state Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, said. Before the deal is final, he said the sides need to tackle the water needs of the Sappi North America paper mill in Skowhegan, which relies on the Shawmut Dam between Fairfield and Benton.
Removing these dams would be a generational step. The Nature Conservancy worked on an effort to remove two dams along the Penobscot River and build a bypass around a third to restore sea-run fish populations. That project, which finished in 2015, is among the state’s landmark projects of this kind alongside the 1999 removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta.
Farrin said he learned about the offer from representatives of Brookfield. Spokespeople for Brookfield, The Nature Conservancy and Gov. Janet Mills did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.
The Mills administration advanced a plan in 2021 that would have removed Brookfield’s dams on the Kennebec to allow endangered Atlantic salmon to pass. The state withdrew it due to a legal error, then the Democratic governor backed off her hard line after pushback focused on effects on the mill. It was an issue in her 2022 race with former Gov. Paul LePage.
Maine is the only state where Atlantic salmon have survived in a few rivers, including the Kennebec and Penobscot. Brookfield has long signaled a desire to keep and upgrade the four dams that combined can generate nearly 47 megawatts of electricity. That has been estimated to make up less than 1 percent of Maine’s total electricity generation.
Sappi North America has supported keeping Shawmut Dam as well as the Weston Dam in Skowhegan and the Hydro Kennebec and Lockwood Dams between Waterville and Winslow. Water from those four dams supports 40 percent of the state’s remaining paper mill production, according to federal regulators.
Through a subsidiary, Brookfield owns dozens of dams in Maine, generating about 87 percent of the hydropower and 21 percent of the wind power here. The Toronto-based investment giant is also a major player in global real estate and other infrastructure, reporting $93 billion in revenue last year.
A major stipulation of the negotiations includes meeting the water intake needs for the Skowhegan mill, which employs around 700 people and needs between 12 million and 14 million gallons daily, Farrin said Friday. Sappi and The Nature Conservancy are holding discussions about the matter, but Farrin said the parties have signed nondisclosure agreements.
Sappi “continues to be gravely concerned at the prospect of removing the Shawmut Dam,” company spokesperson Peter Steele said.
“While Sappi supports improving sea-run fisheries on the Kennebec River, Sappi opposes any proposal that would endanger the viability of the Somerset Mill,” Steele wrote in an email.
The negotiations also come at a noteworthy time for Sappi, whose unionized workers at the Skowhegan mill are threatening to go on strike over complaints with long working hours and a lack of vacation time. The mill is in the middle of a $418 million expansion project announced two days after Mills beat LePage in the 2022 election.
Local towns pushed back on the Mills administration’s 2021 plan by noting tax revenue concerns, and Brookfield sued the state over it. Four conservation groups also sued Brookfield around the same time over salmon deaths but dropped the case last year to focus on the current federal review of the dams.
“From a landowner, municipality and tax revenue piece, this has the potential to have a pretty big impact,” Farrin said.
Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kim Lindlof said Friday she was not familiar with The Nature Conservancy’s offer but said her top concern remains sustaining the paper mill jobs. Protecting the salmon population is also on her mind.
“I don’t see why we can’t have it both ways,” Lindlof said.
