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In 1999, after 10 years of work by NRCM and our coalition partners, the Edwards Dam was removed from the Kennebec River in what is now a model for dam removal across the nation. In-Depth Description

In-Depth Description

For 10 years, NRCM, together with our allies in the Kennebec Coalition (American Rivers, the Atlantic Salmon Federation, and Trout Unlimited and its Kennebec Valley Chapter), worked for the removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta, Maine. In 1999, the dam came down.

Removal of the Edwards Dam has served as a model for dam removal across the nation. For the first time ever, the federal government ruled that the benefits of a free-flowing river outweighed the benefits of the dam and ordered its removal.

Today, striped bass, alewives, and other native sea-run fish are flourishing in the additional 17 miles of habitat restored to the Kennebec by Edwards' removal. Bald Eagles and Osprey soar above the restored waters in search of fish. Paddlers in canoes and kayaks, boaters with their kids, and anglers with their fishing gear have all become familiar sights in this stretch of river.

But the story of the Kennebec is still incomplete. Our next hurdle is the 470-foot Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow, which blocks the mouth of the Sebasticook River, the largest tributary to the Kennebec. The dam's owner, Florida Power and Light, has received permission from the state and federal governments to remove it. Unfortunately, a small group of people living along the slow-moving, lake-like section of river above the dam are blocking removal of the Fort Halifax Dam through lawsuits in both federal and state court.

NRCM and the other members of the Kennebec Coalition have intervened in every one of the lawsuits the people who want to stop the Fort Halifax removal have brought, and so far, we have won. It may take years to resolve all of the suits, but we will continue working until the Kennebec watershed is restored for the people and wildlife of Maine.