Power line harmful, DEP says Hydro plan would put wildlife, scenery at risk

The Department of Environmental Protection is recommending that an application from Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. to build an 84-mile power line across eastern Maine be denied because it would unnecessarily harm wildlife habitat and degrade the scenic and recreational quality of the area.

In a draft order released Friday, the DEP staff said the application should be rejected because there are two alternative routes that would have fewer negative effects.

One of those routes proposed by International Paper Co., which owns much of the land in the area, parallels the Stud Mill Road, a private logging road between Costigan and Princeton.

The other alternative route, proposed by the Natural Resources Council of Maine, runs next to an existing power line much farther north through the communities of Lincoln and Orient.

In the past, Bangor Hydro has said these alternatives were not feasible because the company has already invested millions of dollars in its own proposed route, which would cross remote Hancock and Washington counties within a couple of hundred feet to more than a mile of the Stud Mill Road. The power company has argued its route would cause the least ecological and aesthetic damage to the area, which is frequented by canoeists.

DEP staff disagreed.

Bangor Hydro “has failed to demonstrate that there are no alternatives to the proposed location and character of the transmission line which would lessen its impact on the environment or the risks it would engender to the public health or safety, without unreasonably increasing its costs,” the draft order concludes.

The order is now subject to comments from the parties involved. DEP staff may then revise it before passing it along to the Board of Environmental Protection, a citizen group that votes on major projects.

The BEP has the final say. It is not expected to vote for a couple of months.

The board approved the new line in 1992, but Bangor Hydro never started construction. The approval was renewed twice, but in 1998, at the request of NRCM, the board asked the utility company to submit a new application. That application is what was recommended for denial Friday.

In four days of testimony last fall, IP and NRCM argued that much has changed along the proposed route, including the construction of a gas pipeline next to the Stud Mill Road and the listing of wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers as an endangered species. Two of the rivers, the Machias and Narraguagus, would be crossed by the line.

Bangor Hydro argued that the changes were anticipated and that it had not begun construction because of delays in obtaining the necessary federal permits. In addition, the company did not have the money to build the line in the mid-’90s. Earlier this year, Bangor Hydro was acquired by a Nova-Scotia-based company.

“We are obviously disappointed,” said Alan Spear, director of special projects for Bangor Hydro.

He said the company wants very much to build the line, but must adhere to financial and scheduling constraints. Some modification of the route may be possible, he said Friday.

“We are willing to modify the route in some reasonable manner as long as it keeps our schedule and keeps our budget increases modest,” Spear said.

In its proposed order, the DEP staff made it clear that the application failed in many regards. “The proposed activity would unreasonably interfere with existing scenic, aesthetic and recreational [values] in that there are alternatives to the proposed route … that would have less impact,” the order said.

In addition, “the proposed activity would unreasonably harm significant wildlife habitat,” while the IP and NRCM routes “meet the project purpose, appear to be practicable, and have less impact” on plant and animal habitat, the staff wrote.

The proposed route would violate state water quality laws because Bangor Hydro has not fully addressed the potential for use of the power line corridor by all-terrain vehicles, which would likely dislodge sediment into streams, the draft order said.

During hearings on the application last fall, Bangor Hydro argued that the NRCM route was not practicable because the line would cross the border near Orient, about 90 miles farther north than where New Brunswick Power wants it to go. The Canadian utility wants the line built so it can send power from its Point LePreau nuclear power plant to the New England market. If the line were to follow the northerly route, as NRCM proposed, New Brunswick Power was not prepared to meet it on the Canadian side, an official of that company said.

A representative of NRCM, the state’s largest environmental group, said the organization was pleased with the draft order because it left its preferred alternative open as an option.

“They found the NRCM route … was a practicable alternative and it would have less adverse impact on wildlife habitat and interfere less with the remote recreational characteristics of the Down East region,” said Cathy Johnson, the group’s North Woods project director.

An attorney for IP, Andy Hamilton, said he was pleased that the board allowed the company and NRCM to propose the alternative routes. But, he deferred further comment on the draft order until after the BEP offers its final decision on the matter.