Bangor Hydro files formal application for Basin Mills power facility at Orono

Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. delivered a 14-volume application for a permit to build a dam and hydroelectric power facility at Basin Mills in Orono to the Department of Environmental Protection on Friday, triggering the start of the second in-state review of the project.

The Public Utilities Commission already is considering the utility’s request for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the new dam at Basin Mills, as well as improvement projects at existing dams and power plants in Veazie and Milford.

“These 14 volumes are going to tell you that this isn’t a dam vs. fish project,” said Fred Ayer, director of environmental affairs at Bangor Hydro and spokesman for the team that has spent 10 years developing the Basin Mills project.

The Basin Mills project has generated considerable controversy, particularly among advocates for the salmon restoration program in the Penobscot River where the dam will be located.

Bangor Hydro proposes to discontinue power generation at an old power plant in Orono, but would leave the impoundment across the Stillwater River. Around the corner from this dam, the utility proposes to put a new dam across the Penobscot River with the capacity to generate a maximum of 38 megawatts of electricity. The Basin Mills project would have a price tag of $69 million if it were built today.

Coupled with the new dam, Bangor Hydro proposes to add a new powerhouse in Veazie, adding another 8 megawatts to the 8.4 megawatts generated there. This project has a price tag of $24 million.

In addition to the proceedings already under way before the PUC and the review that was started Friday with the application to the DEP, Ayer said that the utility will file a multivolume application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency by the end of the month, as requested by that agency.

The PUC’s schedule calls for a decision on Bangor Hydro’s request by February 1991. However, some members of the PUC’s legal staff have proposed that it is premature for the PUC to consider the Basin Mills project since construction wouldn’t begin until 1996. Debate on postponing consideration of the project is scheduled for July 30.

Review by the DEP is likely to be lengthy, perhaps as long as a year. Ayer said he hopes the Board of Environmental Protection will make its decision on the project before the federal government makes its decision.