June 15,2010 - Maine dam removal: Lower Montsweag Brook Dam

Two Maine dam removal projects recently won funding from nonprofit conservation organization American Rivers and the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Program. The Maine Council of the Atlantic Salmon Federation won $65,000 to remove the West Winterport Dam on Marsh Stream, a Penobscot River tributary, in Winterport and Frankfort, which will open up 4.5 miles of the stream and restore 20 miles of river habitat.

The other grant was $100,000 to the Chewonki Foundation for the removal of the Lower Montsweag Brook Dam near Wiscasset and Woolwich. This removal will reopen three miles of fish passage and restore the 20 acres of riverine habitat currently flooded by the dam.

Lower Montsweag Brook Dam (map) was constructed by Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company in 1968. The purpose of the 30' tall dam was to impound a backup supply of emergency water for Maine Yankee's nuclear power plant operations.

Chewonki acquired the dam as part of the 2008 Natural Resources Damages Restoration Plan and Settlement Agreement (NRDAR) between Maine Yankee and the State of Maine. As part of that settlement, Chewonki committed to evaluate alternatives for restoring fish passage and riparian habitat in the lower brook.

A feasibility study by Stantec Consulting, Inc., of Topsham, showed that removal of the concrete dam is the most effective and least expensive way to restore fish passage for fish species such as river herring, rainbow smelt, brook trout, and American eel.

Chewonki plans to remove the dam later this summer at a cost of $750,000 to $800,000. A slow drawdown of the impoundment was scheduled to begin in May. This drawdown will allow contractors to inspect the upstream face of the dam and to begin revegetating the impoundment area. Demolition activities will be scheduled to coincide with the low stream flow period of late summer.

June 1, 2010 - Update: news roundup

Baxter State Park: An Ohio hiker was rescued after being missing for two days in the Park. Michael Hays of Stow, Ohio, was spotted by helicopter. He had been immobilized by a crushed kneecap and was covered in insect bites. (No joke: this time of year, the bugs in Baxter are fierce. As is the fishing, thanks to those bugs.) After Mr. Hays failed to sign out on a trail register and his rental car was found in a parking lot, the search began. Hays had a cell phone with him, but had no reception. This was Baxter State Park's largest missing person search since the 1970s involving about 40 people, six dogs as well as Maine Forest Service aircraft. Park Director Jensen Bissell warns hikers not to rely on cell phones, and to stay on trail.

Forest fires in Quebec are affecting northern New England. More than 50 fires are burning about 100,000 acres of forest, mostly started by a May 25 thunderstorm and the dry conditions. The U.S. National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert for northern Vermont and New Hampshire and all but extreme eastern Maine.

The Atlantic hurricane season has begun. NOAA predicts 23 tropical storms, 8 to 14 of which may form into hurricanes.

Site restoration for the former Cascade Woolen Mill in Oakland has been complicated by the discovery of asbestos in the ruins.

May 27, 2010 - TransCanada sues Massachusetts over local aspect of renewable portfolio standard

In Massachusetts: TransCanada has sued the Commonwealth (and named officials) over the Green Communities Act. Specifically, TransCanada is asserting that the statute's requirement that utilities enter into long-term contracts to buy power from Massachusetts generators including local solar PV projects is unconstitutional. TransCanada claims that this discrimination against out-of-state renewable energy producers not only violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, but results in higher prices to ratepayers. The New England Power Generators Association agrees that it is illogical to insist that clean energy originate locally, given our regional transmission grid and unpredictable electron flows.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is trying to negotiate a settlement with TransCanada.

Interestingly, TransCanada is challenging the Green Communities Act: the same statutory framework into which the Cape Wind contract with National Grid fits.

Are electrons a fungible commodity? Are the electrons produced by a renewable project inherently more valuable than electrons produced by (for example) coal-fired generation? Even if they are, doesn't the great mixing bowl that is the transmission grid eliminate any uniqueness those renewable electrons had? Is there any real meaning to the kind of financial (contractual) fictions that Consumer A is buying Generator B's renewable electrons?


Weather news: NOAA predicts an "active" to "extremely active" hurricane season this year, with between 14 and 23 named storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

BP's top kill of the Deepwater Horizon oil well appears to have worked.