WINSLOW -- The group that hopes to save Fort Halifax Dam from being destroyed spent nearly two hours Tuesday night arguing their case before the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Save Our Sebasticook, a nonprofit group dedicated to saving the dam, and Jane Edwards have both appealed the Planning Board's March decision to allow the dam's owner, FPL Energy, to remove the 100-year old dam.

The company is bound by a 1998 agreement that required fish passage be provided for sea-run species by either a fish lift or dam removal by May 1, 2003.

The local group delayed the dam removal process through a series of court challenges at the state and federal level.

Five members of the group and Edwards on Tuesday argued that the planning board violated the shoreland zoning ordinance when it granted FPL permission to tear down the dam on a number of fronts, including its failure to protect the habitat that has developed along the impoundment behind the dam and homeowners from potential erosion of their properties.

Ken Fletcher said the planning board voted the application to tear down the dam was complete without essential information FPL should have been forced to provide. As a result, the town was forced to fill in the gaps on its own, and, in so doing, became an applicant, Fletcher said.

"The change in roles suppressed the board's ability to conduct an independent, factual determination," Fletcher said.

Garland Road resident Theresa Macklin said the planning board should have forced FPL to conduct a survey to help determine who will own the land created if the impoundment is lowered.

Macklin said her research indicates properties that lose their waterfront status could decrease in value as much as $30,000.

"That's detrimental to an owner as well as a financial institution," she said.

Edwards, who raised concerns about chromium resting on the lake bed, suggested FPL had addressed concerns about water-borne chromium before the planning board, but never discussed ways to reduce cancer-causing potential of airborne chromium.

"There was no discussion of chromium in the soil and whether it posed a risk to public safety," Edwards said. "I think it's an important public safety issue."

The meeting, which adjourned just before 11 p.m., is to continue with testimony from FPL, other residents and board questions on Monday, May 19 at the town office.

The board has 35 days from the end of the hearing to make a decision.