The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has launched public comment on its environmental impact report for four existing hydropower facilities along the Kennebec River in the counties of Kennebec and Somerset, before approving the owner’s proposed license amendments.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) concerns Brookfield Renewable’s applications in 2022 to amend three existing licenses and a relicensing application, which have a combined generation capacity of about 47 megawatts (MW).
The 2022 applications had been preceded by earlier amendment applications that sought to address concerns over risks to fish species posed by the decades-old hydroelectric facilities in the state of Maine.
On January 31, 2020, Bermuda-based Brookfield on behalf of Brookfield White Pine Hydro LLC applied for a license to continue operating the 8.65 MW Shawmut facility. It then sought FERC approval June 1, 2021, to amend the application to include an interim plan for the protection of the endangered Atlantic salmon, the FERC recalled in a press release announcing the Draft EIS issuance.
“The Interim Plan includes measures to protect endangered Atlantic salmon until the Commission issues a decision on the relicense application for the Shawmut Project”, the FERC said.
Separately on June 1, 2021, Brookfield sought FERC approval to amend the three other licenses to incorporate a final plan for the protection of the Atlantic salmon, the likewise endangered shortnose sturgeon and the threatened Atlantic sturgeon, the FERC said.
The three existing licenses that Brookfield is seeking to amend are the 15.98 MW Weston Hydroelectric Project, operated by Brookfield White Pine Hydro LLC; the 15.433 MW Hydro-Kennebec Hydroelectric Project of Hydro Kennebec LLC; and the 6.915-MW Lockwood Hydroelectric Project, licensed to Merimil LP.
“On September 21, 2022, Brookfield filed supplemental information and updated its Proposed Actions for the Shawmut relicensing and the license amendments for all four projects”, the FERC said. These versions are the subject of the Draft EIS.
The Shawmut facility began generation 1913, while its permit expired 2021, according to information from the Hydropower Reform Coalition (HRC). The Weston facility went online 1920, while its permit expires 2036, according to the online source. Put into service 1985, the Lockwood facility will also expire 2036, according to the HRC. The newest, Hydro-Kennebec, began generation 1989 and will also expire 2036, according to the coalition.
The solicitation for public views, which closes June 4, aims to help in the evaluation of the environmental impact of approving the relicense application and the three license amendment applications, as updated by the 2022 submissions by Brookfield.
“The primary issues associated with the proposed actions are upstream and downstream passage for diadromous fish species, including: Atlantic salmon, alewife, blueback herring, American shad, American eel, and sea lamprey”, the FERC said.
“The Shawmut relicense application and the Final Plan include proposed upstream and downstream fish passage facilities, operational measures, and monitoring measures designed to enhance upstream and downstream fish passage and avoid or minimize the potential adverse effects of continued operation of the projects on threatened and endangered fish species”, it added.
The Draft EIS endorses amending the four licenses with mandatory conditions on top of the species protection measures proposed by Brookfield.
It presents issues already raised by environmental campaigners and responses by Brookfield.
In a statement on the Draft EIS, HRC member Trout Unlimited took issue with the recommendations for the preservation of the endangered Atlantic salmon.
“The FERC recommendations amount to incremental improvements over what is now a dire situation for Atlantic salmon in Kennebec”, said the statement posted on Trout Unlimited’s website and reposted by the HRC. Trout Unlimited had said previously that the removal of the Brookfield facilities could be the most effective way to save the species, which is given a protected status by the federal conservation agency NOAA Fisheries.
“We have tried the incremental approach before on rivers like the Connecticut, Merrimack, Saco, and Androscoggin”, the statement added. “It doesn’t work. We should all know better than to try it again on the Kennebec.
“Low expectations lead to low performance”.
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