WINSLOW -- Fort Halifax Dam, the 100-year-old hydroelectric facility on the Sebasticook River, continues to use its turbines to produce electric power.

But the end is approaching for the dam now that FPL Energy has received Planning Board approval to move forward on its project to remove a portion of the dam this summer.

Barring a successful appeal of that Planning Board decision, the first stages of the removal process will be seen in early July, says F. Allen Wiley of FPL Energy.

The breaching itself, he said, is expected to start July 16, but there is much to do before that begins.

"We would expect to see the contractor mobilizing several weeks prior to that time frame," Wiley said. "There will be a slow drawdown prior to the breach as well so people will see changes in water level."

Actually, the preparation for dam removal already is in motion, as FPL Energy officials review the list of conditions the Planning Board placed on the energy company's application.

Wiley said the entire process could run as long as seven or eight months, when any reseeding or other remediation work is factored in, meaning a completion date as late as November.

The history

Seeing hydro dams come and go is nothing new in Maine.

Dana Murch of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection said virtually every community in Maine at one time had a dam used for hydro power.

Initially, he said, those hydro dams were harnessed to produce mechanical power for factories and the many saw and grist mills in the state.

Murch, DEP's dams supervisor, said that at the turn of the last century, the first of the hydros built expressly to produce electric power came online, including Fort Halifax, which was completed in 1908.

In many cases, electricity-generating dams actually were retrofits of hydros designed initially to provide mechanical power.

Not so with Fort Halifax.

For most of the 20th century, the hydro dams removed or abandoned were chiefly the small ones that powered grist and saw mills.

That changed around 1990.

During the 1990s, Murch said, 12 dams were breached in Maine, the vast majority hydro facilities, most notably Edwards Dam in Augusta.

Even today, in an era of soaring energy costs, the removal of hydro dams is not uncommon, Murch said.

"I know of at least four approved hydro power projects in Maine," he said, "that are shut down because it's not economical to operate them. Even though there are a lot of benefits from hydro power, that doesn't mean they are all economic."

The timetable

Town attorney William Lee said the final draft of the Planning Board permit should be completed for board members to sign by Monday at the latest. So far, Lee said, the town has not received an appeal of the decision, though Rep. Kenneth Fletcher, a landowner on the lake formed by Fort Halifax Dam, has indicated he might do so. Lee said appeals must be made within 35 days of the decision.

Wiley said FPL Energy realizes an appeal is a possibility and that this could complicate and possibly delay removal plans. The energy company also has yet to complete a cost-sharing deal with the town concerning the relocation of a sewer line that will be partially exposed when the dam is removed.

Nevertheless, Wiley said the timetable for breaching Fort Halifax has been established.

The plan, he said, is to begin a slow drawdown of the lake about two weeks before removal begins.

The drawdown is expected to lower the water level about nine feet below the current high water mark of 24 feet.

Most of the reduction, however, will occur when the dam is breached.

FPL Energy initially planned to use explosives to eliminate an 87-foot portion of the dam. As a condition of the Planning Board permit, though, the company agreed to remove all but the power house, Wiley said.

Wiley said FPL Energy of its own accord also decided to use a mechanical means of demolishing the dam -- the company plans to use a hoe ram, essentially a battering ram attached to an excavator or backhoe.

FPL Energy made the change, Wiley said, to slow the removal process, so that the lake would drain more slowly, thus making any significant erosion or slumping of river banks far less likely. Beyond the demolition itself, Wiley said the process involves hauling off large quantities of debris and possibly reseeding land areas no longer covered by water. "We will be looking at (reseeding) the latter part of August into early September," he said.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com