BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 23, 2021
A state policy shift that could lead to the removal of four Kennebec River dams is pitting Gov. Janet Mills and conservationists against the owner of the dams and some communities dependent on their tax value. The proposed change from the Maine Department of Marine Resources is aimed at allowing species of fish — including the endangered Atlantic salmon — to reach upstream spawning grounds. The plan is being hailed by conservationists who led the historic charges to remove the Edwards Dam in Augusta in 1997 and the Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow in 2008. But the dams’ owner alleged in a February letter that the Mills administration fast-tracked the plan after unsuccessfully trying to broker a deal to sell the dams in question to a third party.