Bangor Daily News coverage

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/05/05/outdoors/orland-village-dam-removal-may-be-in-near-future/

May 5, 2016

by Aislinn Sarnacki

Orland residents will get a chance to decide the fate of the Orland Village Dam at an upcoming town meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. June 15 in the gymnasium of the Orland Community Center at 21 School House Road in Orland.

They’ll have two options: Keep the dam and be willing to pay for annual maintenance and fish ladder upkeep, or accept funding being offered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service, the Nature Conservancy and other partners to remove the structure.

“Our dam committee isn’t making a recommendation. We just want to present what the alternatives are and the facts are as we’ve learned them,” said John Barlow, chairman of the Orland Dam Committee. “We’ve been studying it now for four years.”

Read the full story from the Bangor Daily News.

A decision for Orland residents

At a townwide vote on June 14, 2016, residents of Orland will elect one of the following two options concerning the town-owned Orland Village Dam:

Option 1: Does the Town wish to keep the Orland Village Dam and pay for associated costs? 

OR

Option 2: Does the Town wish to move toward removal of the Orland Village Dam by working with NOAA Fisheries Service and The Nature Conservancy to acquire available grant funding for dam removal and ancillary costs? 

Voting takes place at the Orland Community Center, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 14. 

This website is intended to provide information to help the residents of Orland make this important decision about the future of their village. (See the About page for more background.)

A forum will be held on June 1 at 6 p.m., with presentations by people who have been studying the dam and river and opportunities for residents to ask questions and learn more about the options.

Orland Village Dam at mid-tide.

Why are we voting on the dam? Can’t we just do nothing?

As a tidal dam that is regularly overtopped by monthly high tides, the Orland Village dam is vulnerable to damage from a coastal storm event. Whatever the outcome of the vote, it is in the Town’s best interest to plan for the future of the structure as it ages.

Funding is available now to continue to evaluate dam removal and related issues. The Penobscot River watershed is one of ten “Habitat Focus Areas” across the country where the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has dedicated funding for habitat restoration. The Penobscot was selected largely because of the progress already made in restoring populations of native sea-run fish as a result of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. NOAA has appropriated some of this new funding to The Nature Conservancy to work with the Town of Orland. Federal grant policies demand that this funding is spent within a certain period of time. So federal funds could be allocated to Orland now, even if removal does not happen for a few years.

Additional non-federal funds will also be available from a recent oil spill settlement (http://www.mpbn.net/post/agreement-provides-880k-penobscot-river-oil-leak-dispute) that will be jointly managed by the State of Maine, NOAA and US Fish and Wildlife Service. An important first step is identifying restoration of the Narramissic River as a possible project in a plan for the court-approved settlement.

 More details on why we are voting now:

The dam is about 20 years into its 30-year life expectancy. It needs regular repairs to keep it functioning (at an annual cost of $7,000). The dam spillway is close to the elevation of high tide, and as a result saltwater now regularly overtops the dam and enters the Narramissic River in the village area. The gates are deteriorating. With the dam’s height so close to the height of high tide, the dam is vulnerable to storm surges and floods, like the surge that breached the dam in 1994. Repairs cost nearly $100,000. If a storm or flood washed out the dam, it could leave behind an eyesore and a safety hazard.

Orland Village Dam at high tide, when incoming saltwater floods over the top of the dam.

Because of Orland's importance to the success of overall Penobscot River Restoration Project, which aims to restore populations of native sea-run fish, the dam has attracted the attention--and funding--of the National Marine Fisheries Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the University of Maine. The availability of funding for moving forward with dam removal is also driving the decision to have a town vote.

Regardless of the outcome of the town vote, something also has to be done to address the fishway. Fish passage at the dam is required by state law and is necessary for Orland to maintain an alewife harvest. Two existing fish ladders at the dam are too small and during periods of low tide are difficult for fish to access, impairing passage for alewives, endangered Atlantic salmon and American eel. The dam is not passing enough alewives to adequately populate the entire watershed, according to the Department of Marine Resources. Other species known to occur downstream of the dam—including shortnose sturgeon, American eel and striped bass—will not use the ladders. There is no dedicated downstream passage, and the stranding of outmigrating juvenile alewives on the timber spillway of the dam is a frequent occurrence.

If alewives, eels, or other migratory fish are listed as federally endangered or threatened in the future, the town could be forced to take stronger measures. Should the dam be damaged by a storm surge, and fish passage hindered or destroyed (as happened in 1994), the town would have to pay for repairs.

Keeping the dam, including improving fish passage, and upgrading it to modern standards is the town’s most expensive option, with estimated costs exceeding $1 million, according to Stantec’s 2013 feasibility study. Outside funding sources are limited for dam maintenance.

What will happen to the Town’s water supplies for firefighting?

Securing a stable water supply for firefighting is an important part of assessing the future of the Orland Village Dam. If the dam were removed, the river would become salty due to tidal action. Even under current conditions, with the dam present, the Narramissic River has been less than reliable as a water supply for fire fighting. For example, the dry hydrant on the Narramissic Road is full of silt and is not operational. As part of the feasibility study for the Orland Village dam, engineers have identified several sources of water within the town of Orland that can be developed to ensure a more reliable supply of water for firefighting, such as buried cisterns, Toddy Pond, and Alamoosook Lake. If the dam were to be removed, securing water supply for firefighting would be included as part of the overall project.

Who uses water from the Orland/Narramissic/Alamoosook watershed?

The towns of Orland and Bucksport, along with the Toddy Pond Association, Alamoosook Lake Association, and Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, among other local groups, are concerned about water issues.

The Orland Village Dam and dams on Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake control the overall flow of water in the system. The Alamoosook Lake dam is the primary control on the supply of freshwater in the system; the Orland Village Dam is located at the head of tide, and restricts the flow of freshwater out of the river and blocks most high tides, preventing natural tidal movements and resulting in brackish conditions in the impoundment.

These dams were formerly under the control of the Verso Paper Mill, which closed in 2014. Historically, sometimes, the mill withdrew water from the Narramissic River at the outlet of Alamoosook Lake and pumped it to Silver Lake in Bucksport via a pipeline (aqueduct). Silver Lake water was used by the mill for power generation (~200,000 gallons per day) and processing water (15-17 million gallons per day), and by Maine Water Company to provide drinking water to the Bucksport area (250,000 gallons per day average use, with rights to 1 million gallons per day) [Source: Maine Water].

The current mill owners (AIM) now own Alamoosook and Toddy Pond dams, the Orland Pump House (at Upper Falls), the pipeline to Silver Lake, the dam on Silver Lake, and all the water rights the mill held in both Orland and Bucksport. The future of the mill, and related water use, is uncertain at this time. If the power plant at the former mill was restarted, there could be potential for significantly greater use of water from Silver Lake and possibly the Narramissic River.

Maine Water, which supplies drinking water to Bucksport, retains full legal rights to draw water from Silver Lake for public drinking water supply. Under current conditions, water is not being withdrawn from the Narramissic River/Alamoosook Lake to supplement the supply. Pumping would resume only if Silver Lake’s water level diminished drastically, for example if there was a severe drought. During some summers in the past, there were times when virtually no water was released from Alamoosook and Toddy, so Narramissic River only carried what came in from the rest of the watershed, including tributaries like Whites Brook and Duck Cove Brook [Source: Town of Orland Dam Committee].

It remains unclear what will happen to these assets as the present owner AIM looks to redevelop the mill site in Bucksport. Both the Alamoosook and Toddy Pond dams are critical to maintaining the lakes and the numerous shore front properties in not only Orland but extending into the towns of Penobscot, Blue Hill and Surry.

Unless AIM sells the Bucksport Mill site to some industry that needs significant water supply, they could abandon or give away the dams and water rights. These are all unknowns but they have the possibility to impact the Town of Orland in the future. The Town of Orland could find itself the owner/operator of two more dams.

Groundwater wells in the vicinity of the Narramissic River are mostly deep bedrock wells that intercept groundwater from uphill areas and are not directly connected to the river.   The most likely wells to be affected by dam removal are shallow or “dug” wells.  Since seawater is already overtopping the dam during some high tides, dug wells may already be impacted already. Approximately five residents and businesses along the impoundment area pump water directly from the river and these water supplies would be addressed as part of a dam removal project.

What is the current condition of the dam?

The Orland Village Dam is the lowermost (most seaward) dam on the Narramissic River, which is also known as the Eastern or Orland River. There is another dam at the “Upper Falls,” near the outlet of Alamoosook Lake, and another at the outlet of Toddy Pond. Both upper dams have working fishways.

The current Orland Village Dam was built in the 1930s by the Maine Seaboard Paper Company to create a water supply for the paper mill in Bucksport. However, it was never used for this purpose because the next upstream dam, at the outlet of Alamoosook Lake, proved to be more efficient.

The dam is constructed of wooden timbers filled with rock (“cribwork”), with a small amount of concrete added later in an attempt to patch some internal leaks. This type of construction is not ideal for tidal/saltwater conditions currently being experienced, a situation expected to get worse over time with accelerating rates of sea-level rise, as the dam is already regularly overtopped by monthly high tides and is not a complete barrier to the tidal exchange of salt and fresh water. 

Photo: High tide flooding over the top of the Orland Village Dam.

Annual maintenance costs are estimated at $7,000; this does not include damage from storms or other disasters, which have led to more costly repairs in the past.

Verso made $83,845 in repairs to the dam in 1985; the dam was rebuilt again after it was damaged by a storm-driven tidal surge in January 1994, at a cost of approximately $93,855. Other repairs occurred during the 1990s, including over $10,000 spent on the fish ladders. In 2010 the Town of Orland agreed to take ownership of the dam from Verso when the paper company indicated that they would abandon and possibly remove the dam if the town did not take ownership. Verso provided up to $5,000 for minor repairs on the dam.

What fish live in the river now?

The Orland River is a major tributary to the Penobscot River and provides habitat for diadromous (migratory sea-run) fish. Fish that were in the Orland River historically are still in the Orland River today—this is contrast to many other rivers that have lost their populations of migratory fish.

Below the Orland Village Dam are Atlantic salmon, American eel, alewife, blueback herring, shortnose sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon, sea lamprey, rainbow smelt, tomcod, and American shad. Both eel and alewife are the target of active commercial fisheries, although at lower levels than in the past. The Town of Orland harvests and sells alewives for lobster bait (generating $5,000-$10,000 per year). When the alewives are running, the area below the Orland Village Dam fills with eagles, osprey, gulls, cormorants, and seals.

A century ago, Orland was the center of the alewife fishery on the Penobscot River, as described in this excerpt from the 1905 U.S. Fish Commission Report. This important role continues today. Given the incomplete passage at other dams farther up in the watershed, Orland-Narramissic River is important for restoring alewives to the Penobscot River. This is largely because the river still has fish, including a harvestable run of alewives, but also because of the large area of lake habitat upstream, intact forests in the watershed, and clean water. A recent assessment by The Nature Conservancy placed Orland in the top 5% for sea-run fish habitat potential among Northeastern U.S. rivers and among the highest in the Penobscot River basin, with a potential return of at least 1,245,735 adult alewives [Source: The Nature Conservancy and NOAA].

Fisheries scientists believe that restoring these migratory fish, millions of which once filled the Penobscot River and Gulf of Maine, will also aid the recovery of marine fish like cod and other groundfish, which eat alewives. These changes are already being documented in Penobscot Bay as alewives have been restored in Blackman Stream in Milford, Pushaw Stream in Old Town, and elsewhere.

Freshwater fish in the Narramissic River, upstream of the Orland Village dam, include largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch, brown bullhead, pumpkinseed sunfish, chain pickerel, and brown trout, most of which are not native to the watershed. Wild brook trout are present in the river, supplemented with stocked fish by Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Alewives, salmon, and eel can be found seasonally in the Narramissic River as well.