Penobscot River Restoration Enters New Phase

OLD TOWN (NEWS CENTER) -- The push to return atlantic salmon to their old spawning grounds on the Penobscot River has just entered a very big phase.

Partners in the Penobscot Restoration Trust said they are buying the Veazie, Great Works and Howland Dams from PPL Corporation. The trust plans to remove the Great Works and Veazie Dams and build a fish bypass around the Howland Dam. The company is increasing the power output from other dams to make up for the two that will be demolished. Penobscot Trust Executive Director Laura Rose Day said people in the communities that will be affected by the dam removals have been very cooperative.

"We feel that people have been incedibly productive about accepting the possibility of change in order to produce great results for this river," Rose Day said.

The Penobscot Trust purchased the dams for twenty-five million dollars. They secured fifteen million dollars in federal funds for the project and raised the additional ten million in private funds.