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Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 20:29:17 -0500
To: dam-l@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
From: Native Forest Network <nfnena@sover.net>
Subject: dam-l First US Dam to be Dismantled (FWD)
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>Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 15:22:25 -0700 (PDT)
>X-Sender: climate@asis.com
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>To: wall-list@igc.org
>From: Earth First! Media Center <efmc@asis.com>
>Subject: First US Dam to be Dismantled (FWD)
>Cc: hellbenders@envirolink.org
>
>
>============================================================
>OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>                                         Jamie Workman or
>
>                                         Stephanie Hanna (O) 202/208-6416
>May 26, 1998                             (F &W) Terri Edwards 413-253-8327
>
>
>    INTERIOR SECRETARY SIGNS LANDMARK CONSERVATION AGREEMENT
>                     TO REMOVE EDWARDS DAM
>
>         AT EDWARDS, BABBITT PUTS DAM OWNERS ON NOTICE
>
>
>Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today signed papers with state and
>private officials and a coalition of conservation organizations clearing
>the way
>for the removal of the 917-foot Edwards Dam, spanning the Kennebec River in
>the
>city of Augusta, Maine.
>
>When it comes out within a year, the dam - which has blocked 17 miles of prime
>fish-spawning habitat for 160 years - will be the first hydrodam removed in
>the
>United States.  It also marks the first time that the Federal Energy
>Regulatory
>Commission (which licenses about 2,000 other dams) refused to relicense a dam.
>
>"Today, with the power of our pens, we are dismantling several myths: that
>hydrodams provide clean pollution-free energy; that hydropower is the main
>source of our electricity; that dams should last as long as the pyramids; and
>that making them friendlier for fisheries is expensive and time consuming,"
>Secretary Babbitt said.
>
>"There are 75,000 large dams in this country, most built a long, long time
>ago,"
>he said.  "Many are useful but some are obsolete, expensive and unsafe.  They
>were built with no consideration of the environmental costs.  We must now
>examine those costs and act accordingly."
>
>"This is not a call to remove all, most, or even many dams," he continued.
>"But
>this is a challenge to dam owners and operators to defend themselves - to
>demonstrate by hard facts, not by sentiment or myth, that the continued
>operation of a dam is in the public interest, economically and
>environmentally.
>Often the outcome will mean more environmentally friendly operating regimes,
>perhaps achieved through the installation of fish passages or other
>technological fixes.  In some cases, like the one we are here to highlight
>today, it will mean actual removal."
>
>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has consistently advocated for removal of
>Edwards Dam. For more than 160 years, the dam has prevented free passage of
>Atlantic salmon, American shad, river herring, striped bass, shortnose
>sturgeon
>(listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act), Atlantic
>sturgeon, rainbow smelt and American eel.
>
>"As many as 4 million river herring, 500,000 shad, and 3,000 salmon may
>someday
>soon find suitable habitat on the Kennebec River above Augusta," Babbitt
>predicted.  "The environmental benefits of dismantling this dam far
>outweigh any
>future usefulness.  Its removal is a conservation milestone and was achieved
>through a remarkable partnership that can become a model for the nation."
>
>Under the Lower Kennebec River Comprehensive Hydropower Settlement Accord,
>Edwards Manufacturing and the City of Augusta will relinquish their hydropower
>license and ownership of Edwards Dam to the State of Maine by Jan. 1, 1999.
>The
>State in turn will dismantle the dam in 1999 and return the property to the
>city.
>
>The accord also embodies a unique partnership among the City of Augusta, State
>of Maine, Department of the Interior and other federal agencies, private
>conservation organizations, upstream dam owners, and Bath Iron Works. This
>diverse group will work together to ensure funding for dam removal and
>associated restoration work. Trust funds established under the agreement
>will be
>used to help restore and manage Atlantic salmon, American shad, river
>herring, striped bass, and other migratory fish in the Kennebec River
>during the
>next 15 years.
>
>Edwards Dam was built in 1837 to provide hydro mechanical power to Augusta's
>textile industry. It has had the capability of producing hydroelectric power
>since 1913 and currently generates 3.5 megawatts, a minute percentage of
>Maine's
>energy supply.
>
>The dam is the first along the Kennebec River, located approximately 40 miles
>from river's mouth on the Atlantic. It measures 917 feet long and 25 feet high
>and creates a reservoir covering more than one thousand acres. The next dam on
>the river is located 17 miles upstream from Augusta.
>
>                             -DOI-
>
>
>
>
>
>
>============================================================
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