Morning Sentinel
Benefits of Kennebec River dam removal cited in studies, but Sebasticook fears persist
BY ALAN CROWELL
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 05/27/2008

WINSLOW -- Homeowners near the Fort Halifax Dam could see an increase in their property values if the dam is removed, according to two studies, including one by a Bates College economist.

Lynne Y. Lewis, Ph.D, of Bates, and other researchers studied the change in property values of homes near the Edwards Dam before and after the dam was removed in 1999.

What they found is that, counter to the predictions of some, who feared removal of the 162-year-old dam would result in the creation of vast unsightly mud flats and a lowering of property values, the price of homes near the dam actually rose.

But if the study points out the positive impacts of the Edwards Dam removal, which was good for both fish and paddlers, residents who live near the Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow worry that the removal of that dam will hurt recreational use and potentially endanger homeowners.

Call it a tale of two rivers.

Lewis said that after the 1999 removal of the Edwards Dam, while the water level of the Kennebec River declined as expected, vegetation quickly reclaimed the exposed river bottom.

"People were expecting mudflats and that is not what they got," said Lewis.

"From what we found in Augusta, removal of the dam improved river conditions."

Salmon were upstream of the dam a year after it was removed, and recreational use increased as that stretch of the river became more popular with anglers and paddlers.

And the changes were not all of an environmental nature.

Looking at 10 years of sales of properties near dams on the Kennebec River, Lewis said that study found a significant penalty for properties near the Edwards Dam.

That penalty -- meaning that those properties near the dam sold for less than similar properties farther from the dam -- also extended to homes near the Fort Halifax Dam and the Lockwood Dam, which spans the river between Waterville and Winslow.

With the removal of the Edwards Dam, however, the penalty for homes near that location essentially disappeared, and although the penalty for homes near the Fort Halifax and Lockwood dams has decreased, it remains significant.

"We found a much higher penalty for those dams that are still in place," said Lewis.

A study led by Bill Provencher, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, also examined the impact of small dam removal on property values and had similar results.

Members of Save Our Sebasticook, a citizen group that has opposed the removal of the Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow through a series of court battles in state and federal courts, worry that what was true of the Kennebec may not be true for them.

Down to what may be their last appeal, Save our Sebasticook has tried to convince the Winslow Zoning Board of Appeals that the Planning Board erred when it approved FPL Energy's application to remove the dam.

Central Maine Power Co., the dam's original owner, agreed to remove the dam or install a fish passage by May 2003. FPL Energy, which inherited that agreement when it bought the Maine utility's generating assets, has said the cost of installing the fish passage is too high and that it will remove the dam.

At the first part of the Zoning Board of Appeal's meeting on the appeal, a member of Save Our Sebasticook estimated that some properties could drop in value if the dam is removed.

Kenneth Fletcher, a founder of Save Our Sebasticook, said that because the removal of the Edwards Dam improved recreational use on the Kennebec River, doesn't mean that removing the Fort Halifax Dam will be a boon to recreation on the Sebasticook.

The Sebasticook is a relatively slow moving, shallow river, and Fletcher said taking out the dam will mean the loss of roughly two thirds of the water surface for the five miles of the Sebasticook behind the Fort Halifax Dam.

On the Kennebec, the drop in the water level was much less significant.

"You didn't go from a lake to a stream and that is what is going to happen here," said Fletcher.

Bass and other fish species that are in the Sebasticook now will be decimated, boaters will no longer be able to use large portions of the river in the summer months and a river that is now a major thoroughfare for snowmobile traffic in the winter may no longer be passable, said Fletcher.

Perhaps the most important single issue, however, is what will happen to six homes on Dallaire Street in Winslow.

Perched high on a steep embankment over the Sebasticook River, the homes face an uncertain future, believes Bob Hendrick, whose mother-in-law lives on Dallaire Street.

Standing behind his mother-in-law's home, Hendrick points to a lilac bush that was planted about 15 years ago on level ground and now holds on precariously, 10 feet down the steep embankment.

Farther up the street, a wooden fence and part of a foundation marks the site where a home was lost to erosion of the hillside that started with a landslide in 1980.

"This bank has always been unstable," said Hendrick.

Nobody knows what will happen if the dam is breached, he said. A smaller, faster-moving river may shift course and eat away at the bottom of the slope.

A 1976 report by Jordan Gorrill Associates, geotechnical consultants of Bangor, called the Dallaire Street slope unstable and suggested sewer work that was affecting the slope be discontinued.

The report also found that "any change in subsurface conditions, (excavation, groundwater level change, or earth tremor) could cause a failure."

A written decision dated March 17, in which the Winslow Planning Board approves FPL Energy's application to remove the dam, states that three reports of Sebago Technics and testimony of Sebago Technics experts establish that the risk of a major slope failure were "very low but not totally impossible."

If the slope does give way, there is the possibility of "injury or death" to people in the homes.

"The safest way to determine the possibility of potential slope movement is through monitoring," states the decision.

Monitoring is prudent for two years after completion of the drawdown, according to that decision. During a two- week period starting before the dam is breached, FPL has offered to pay families $250 a day for substitute accommodations, according to the decision.

Members of Save our Sebasticook, however, believe the real test of how the dam removal will affect the slope may come much later, during abnormally high water levels.

Alan Crowell -- 861-9244

acrowell@centralmaine.com

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