02/26/2008
enlarge
Morning Sentinel staff photofrom the Kennebec Journal
Finding shelter for those who serve their nation
Immigrant recalls her special greeting
State gains $85M in Homeland Security funds
Man arrested after swerve toward cop
School unit in limbo
Rain? What rain?
LEE LATCHES ON WITH THOMAS
Modern camping equipment takes it to the extreme
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
Civil War-era flag finds honored position
Residents wonder if the rain will ever go away
FAIRFIELD Sewage plant rejection irks man
Winslow's fireworks guy doesn't mind the obscurity
At holiday derby, the fun is catching
Vets' champion 'very passionate' about her work
Hersom deals with change
Sandals work for outdoor types
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
That is one of the potential effects of the planned partial removal of the Fort Halifax Dam, according to Sebago Technics, an engineering firm hired by the town of Winslow.
Hermey, who is 100 percent disabled, knows vaguely that dam removal has something to do with restoring sea-run fish, and recently learned about Sebago Technics' recommendation that several Dallaire Street houses, including his home, be evacuated on the first day of dam removal and possibly longer.
Sebago Technics' concern is that rapid drawdown of the lake created by the 100-year-old hydroelectric dam will remove pressure that helps stabilize the riverbank.
"I don't understand why they are doing this," Hermey said. "Something about fish. I don't understand why they are taking out a source of clean energy."
The 43-year-old Hermey said he is in no position physically or financially to evacuate his home for a few days. He said he suffers from Parkinson's disease, diabetes, glaucoma and diverticulitis.
Finding money for a two-day hotel stay would be difficult, he said, and moving his valuables from the house would be even a greater hardship.
"Am I going to get help to pay for this?" he said. "And what happens if my house does fall down the mountain? My insurance won't pay for it. I'm scared to even tell them about this."
Hermey needs only to look out his side porch window for a grim illustration of what can happen to a home sitting on an unstable bank.
The foundation remnants of a house that landed in the Sebasticook after a bank collapse sits less than 50 feet from his property.
That disaster occurred in 1981. Sebago Technics in its study concluded that river bank instability could not be blamed for that accident.
Instead, Sebago Technics said the cause apparently stemmed from putting additional fill on loose fill that already was in place.
Winslow resident Pete Lund confirms the story. Lund said he was one of the haulers who brought the loose fill to the site.
"When it happened," he said, "I was hauling fill from Scott Paper, and I was the last truck on the river bank when it collapsed."
Hermey said he knew of the collapse when he bought his home two years ago. But he said he was confident his home would be fine given that it had stood at its current location since 1920.
Now, though, he is not so sure.
Hermey said the vibrations caused by snow plows driving on Dallaire Street are enough to shake his house.
"Sometimes, I can't close the bathroom door," he said, "because the whole house shifts -- and I'm on a foundation."
In his five-page report, Sebago Technics' Robert G. Gerber, an environmental engineer, wrote of the Dallaire Street river bank that "I do have a general level of discomfort due to the height of the slope, the fact that the top of the slope has been filled, the past analysis indicating marginal slope stability, the history of a landslide here, and the general fact that rapid drawdown next to a low permeability soil will decrease slope stability."
Gerber also recommends that the Dallaire Street slope be monitored daily for soil movement for 30 days following the start of dam removal.
So far the Planning Board and dam owner FPL Energy have not discussed how to handle an evacuation of some Dallaire Street residents.
But that discussion is coming as part of the energy company's ongoing effort to get Planning Board approval to move ahead on the project, said planner Elery Keene. Planners have set a meeting on the issue at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Town Office.
Keene said relatives of people who live on Dallaire Street have urged him to make FPL Energy take responsibility for any damage dam removal may have on properties in that neighborhood.
They also have argued that FPL Energy should cover any costs of evacuation, Keene said. Keene said those sentiments make sense to him.
He said planners could demand FPL Energy satisfy those demands as a condition of approval.
F. Allen Wiley of FPL Energy, however, said the energy company has had no discussion with the town over fiscal responsibilities for Dallaire Street residents.
Nor, he said, does the company have a position on the issue.
"I guess we would have to think about that," he said. "I really have no comment at this point."
Hermey, meanwhile, is second-guessing his decision to move from Long Pond in Belgrade to Dallaire Street.
"I thought at the time that at least here I'll still have my water view," he said.
"I thought this was the ideal spot. Now I see that maybe it's not so ideal."
Colin Hickey -- 861-9205
chickey@centralmaine.com
Reader comments
Click here to view or add reader comments