MAINE MONITOR • November 24, 2024
The terms dictating the vast influence of many Maine hydroelectric dams were last drawn up a generation ago, often by the same paper companies that first harnessed the rivers’ power for their mills downstream. Since, the dams have swapped hands among a slew of corporate owners — permanently altering the watersheds and landscapes they occupy. While fishery research and concepts of tribal sovereignty progressed, the dams stayed grounded in the past. But in the past few years, the regulatory floodgates opened, releasing a deluge of legal filings and environmental impact studies. Those living in the dams’ shadows have a brief window to sort through the bureaucratic debris and make their own recommendations about how the dams should be operated, or in some cases, removed.