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It used to be more of a luxury to worry how fish might gain passage into the upper reaches of the Androscoggin River.
The waterway — which passes through western Maine before ending in the midcoast — used to be so polluted that it killed fish by the millions. That contamination famously inspired U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie, who grew up near the river in Rumford, to lead the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, which helped to jumpstart a decades-long cleanup effort.
But now that some stretches of the river have been deemed clean enough to be held to tighter quality standards, it has gotten safer for fish populations to return.
As a result, environmental groups have set their sights on improving the ability of fish to get over one of the more iconic barriers on the river, the hydroelectric dam between Brunswick and Topsham. The owner of that dam, Brookfield Renewable, is now seeking to relicense it by 2029, after its current 50-year license expires.
While this will not be the first time conservation groups have pushed Brookfield to improve fish passage on the Maine waterways that it uses to create hydropower, their push stands out because of the lengths that environmentalists have already gone to clean up the Androscoggin.
A fish ladder was built on the midcoast dam in the 1980s, but research suggests that few fish are actually using it. In 2015, the state Department of Marine Resources counted only two salmon that ascended the ladder, despite tens of thousands once heading upstream each year. A Bowdoin College report in 2019 found that, out of the thousands of migrating shad that appeared in the river near the dam every day in summer, only a single fish was able to successfully use the ladder.
Multiple groups, including Maine Rivers, American Rivers and the Merrymeeting Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited, have formed a coalition called Free the Andro to push for improvements of the Brunswick fish passage.
Chip Spies, the group’s founder, said that with relicensing nearing, now is the only chance to make its voice heard.
“With the improvement of the river and the remnant populations of the migratory fish that still come up… it’s really time to look back at the health of the river and the fish,” Spies said.
Any new license could dictate how Brookfield must use the dam for the next 30 to 50 years, Spies said. Before setting those terms, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission takes public input on environmental concerns.
Spies said the group does not yet have a clear set of improvements it would like to see. As part of the relicensing, researchers are likely to spend the next few years studying the fish and making recommendations.
“It can range anywhere from removing the dam to an alternate kind of design and structure around that, but we don’t have that answer, and that’s why getting involved and understanding what the studies are is very important,” he said.
Free the Andro isn’t exactly alone. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the National Marine Fisheries Service have also asked Brookfield for further studies regarding fish migration as part of the relicensing.
Brookfield did not respond to a request for comment.
In its relicensing filings, Brookfield has said it will revise its computer modeling to inform the potential for attracting fish into a passage. However, in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service’s request for a study of downstream fish passage, Brookfield said it “does not see the benefit of conducting these costly studies to analyze the effectiveness of an outdated downstream passage system that will require upgrades to meet current resource agency standards for safe, effective, and timely fish passage.”
Allowing fish to complete their migration is important not only to the ecosystem, but Maine fisheries as well, Spies said. There are 11 fish species that have traditionally come up the river, including shad, alewives and salmon. Their movement helps nutrients flow through the river, and it allows the fish to reproduce more effectively, therefore increasing their population. Alewives, especially, are used as bait for Maine lobstermen.
“[We’re also] just trying to raise public awareness in our community around what is happening, because it is an arcane process, and very often people just aren’t aware that relicensing is occurring,” Spies said.
