Bucksport looks to block owner from abandoning key dam

Bucksport’s town council is expected to enact a temporary measure this week that will prevent the owner of a local dam from walking away from the property.

The seven-member council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 27, to consider a moratorium on “the transfer, abandonment, removal or unregulated release of impounded water of dams.”

The temporary ban on allowing such activity is meant to prevent Bucksport Mill LLC, a subsidiary of AIM Demolition USA, from ceding ownership of Silver Lake Dam, which it acquired when it bought the former local Verso Paper mill in 2015.

The company filed a petition with state officials in July seeking approval for ridding itself of the Bucksport dam and two others it owns. It also owns dams on Alamoosook Lake in Orland and on Toddy Pond, which abuts the shorelines of Blue Hill, Orland, Penobscot and Surry.

Officials in those five towns have raised concerns about those dams being sold, removed or abandoned, saying that it could harm local property owners. A release of water could damage properties downstream, while lower lake levels could harm the values of lakefront properties and reduce tax income for the towns.

Silver Lake also provides the drinking water for Bucksport and several other towns, and a power company operating at the former paper mill site has rights to it. On Alamoosook Lake, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a fish hatchery.

“These dams are critical infrastructure for a public water supply, recreational and community values, and are economic engines for the region,” Bucksport town officials said in a statement Monday. “Failure of the Silver Lake dam would cause significant property damage and potential loss of life. This ordinance would provide a local review process for such an action and allow sufficient time for a thorough evaluation of such a request.”

David Bryant, an official with the company that owns the dams, has not replied to messages seeking comment on the towns’ concerns.

The five towns have formed a committee to discuss the situation and to monitor AIM’s efforts to disown the dams.

According to members of the committee, AIM had 60 days after filing its petition with Maine Department of Environmental Protection to provide the agency with additional information, but failed to meet that Aug. 11 deadline. As a result, the petition has been discarded, and AIM will have to start over and file a new petition with Maine DEP if it wants to pursue the process of relinquishing ownership of the dams.

“At this point the communities have no information regarding these dams, their conditions, legal obligations, maintenance and repair cost, and deed requirements,” the committee said. “None was provided with the original petition, and we have asked the DEP to require additional information on these and other topics should Bucksport Mill LLC/AIM refile.”

Lester Stackpole, a selectman in Orland, said Monday that there will be a lot to figure out and prepare for before AIM relinquishes control of the dams, if it still wants to do so.

“It is definitely urgent and we don’t want these dams to go,” Stackpole said.