PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 23, 2023
On July 7, lighting knocked out McKay Station, the powerhouse serving Brookfield’s Ripogenus Dam on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. With the unstaffed station inoperable, Brookfield’s own SafeWaters website showed waterflows below Ripogenus collapsing to 100 cubic feet per second, a fraction of the normal 3,000 to 1,800 cfs range. Retired fisheries biologist Ed Spear, who worked for Great Northern Paper when it ran Ripogenus, said: “Essentially, the entire West Branch 2023 salmon year class was eliminated.” This event provided the latest example of Canada-based Brookfield’s careless disregard for the many Maine dams it owns and rivers it controls and why Mainers who care about our environment should be concerned as Brookfield seeks to renew its 30- to 50-year federal licenses to operate its dams. It must be made clear that a license to operate dams is not a license to kill. ~ Steve Heinz, Maine chapter of Trout Unlimited