The Bridge Street Dam, as seen from Bridge St. in May 2021. The defunct dam is the centerpoint of a feasibility study that will determine the future of Yarmouth’s riverfront. (Patrick Bergen/Clipper Chronicle)
by Patrick Bergen
May 2021
The Bridge Street Dam, as seen from Bridge St. in May 2021. The defunct dam is the centerpoint of a feasibility study that will determine the future of Yarmouth’s riverfront. (Patrick Bergen/Clipper Chronicle)
The Yarmouth Town Council recently approved a feasibility study to be done on the Bridge Street and Elm Street dams on the Royal River, reopening the decades-long conversation about the possible demolition of the two defunct dams.
In a unanimous decision from late January, town councilors agreed to move forward with a study proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers in which the Corps will study the potential benefits that their removals would have to migratory fish species, such as alewife and trout, while weighing the possible impacts to the several marinas located in the harbor downstream.
Under a federal environmental initiative known as Section 206, the town will receive federal funding to assist in the cost of the study, and the council has already committed $55,000 towards the first stage. Should the council move forward with removal, then Yarmouth taxpayers will have to shoulder about 35 percent of the construction costs while the remaining 65 percent is funded federally through the 206 program. The total cost of demolition will likely be between $250,000 and $300,000 per dam, according to a 2010 sedimentary study conducted by Stantec.
The Royal River has played a significant role in the industrial history of Yarmouth. As many as eight dams were built on the river starting as early as 1674, and for over 200 years afterwards, the river powered the lumber, paper, textile, and iron industries that all supported the town.
Now, only the Bridge Street and Elm Street dams remain, but they no longer serve any economic or flood-control purpose. Proponents of their removal, including Maine Rivers, Trout Unlimited, and the Conservation Law Foundation, all describe the dams as obsolete, citing the negative consequences they have on the Royal River by blocking the migration of fish species and creating the distinctively slow, oxygen-depleted river that flows through Yarmouth today.
Environmental groups have long vied for the removal of the dams, which would open over 70 miles of river habitat and over 130 miles of hatchery and spawning waterways for native anadromous fish species, such as herring, alewife, brook trout, and possibly atlantic salmon, according the the Army Corps report.
Both dams currently have Denil fishways, a common type of fish ladder, that were installed in the 1970s. However, neither the Town of Yarmouth or the Maine Department of Marine Resources have conducted maintenance, allowing the fishways to fall into disrepair.
According to Alan Stearns, Executive Director of the Royal River Conservation Trust, the impact on the ecology of the watershed extends beyond the river. For migratory fish species, the dams, Denil fishways or not, eliminate the ability of the fish to live in the river. In turn, this impacts the greater Casco Bay ecosystem.
“These fish are part of the food chain of the bay,” said Stearns, explaining that if these fish are not there, the negative effects are then felt for other species, such as striped bass. “The bay then suffers in the same way as the river suffers.”
The current infrastructure for fish passage, known as Denil fishways, at the Elm Street Dam (left) and Bridge Street Dam (right). Both fishways are inoperable and irremediable. A 2018 (Patrick Bergen/Clipper Chronicle)
Marina owners in Yarmouth have greeted the discussions surrounding the dams with skepticism. Their position stems over concerns for the sediment that has accumulated behind the dams over centuries, and the potential contamination the runoff would bring to the harbor should they be removed. As the harbor requires regular dredging to maintain enough depth for boat traffic, the marinas have frequently expressed concern about the impact to Yarmouth’s waterfront.
“While the desire to create connectivity and clean water in the Royal with dam removal is admirable, it makes no sense not to recognize that we have a responsibility to ensure that the ecosystem downstream is also protected,” said the owners of Royal River Boatyard, Yarmouth Boat Yard, and Yankee Marina in a December 2020 letter to the Town Council. “To do otherwise, would be a disservice to our shared responsibilities.”
The final decision regarding the future of the dams will fall to the Town Council. Alan Stearns views the issue of the dams as a cost to Yarmouth regardless of the path councilors choose to take. “It will cost the town money in the future,” said Stearns. “It’s just a matter of whether it’s done strategically or reactively”.
The Army Corps of Engineers study will take an estimated 18 months to complete, with a final decision on the dams to be made by the Town Council based on the data.