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Sebasticook River Dam Removal May Harm Upriver Lots

March 11, 2008 - WINSLOW -- Scott Hermey is a bit on edge these days, and for good reason: He's been told that his home could slide into the Sebasticook River this summer. That is one potential effect of the partial removal of the Fort Halifax Dam, according to Sebago Technics, an engineering firm hired by the town.

Hermey, 43, knows vaguely that the dam removal has something to do with restoring sea-run fish. He learned recently about Sebago Technics' recommendation that several Dallaire Street houses, including his, be evacuated on the first day of dam removal and possibly longer. Sebago Technics' concem is that rapid drawdown of the lake created by the 100-year-old hydroelectric dam will remove pressure that helps stabilize the riverbank.

Hermey said he is in no position physically or financially to evacuate his home for a few days. He said he suffers from Parkinson's disease, diabetes, glaucoma and diverticulitis. Finding money for a two-day hotel stay would be difficult, he said, and moving his valuables from the house would be even a greater hardship.

"And what happens if my house does fall down the mountain? My insurance won't pay for it. I'm scared to even tell them about this," he said.

Hermey needs only to look out his side porch window for a grim illustration of what can happen to a home on an unstable bank. The foundation remnants of a house that landed in the Sebasticook after a bank collapse sit less than 50 feet from his property. That disaster occurred in 1981.

Sebago Technics concluded that the riverbank's instability could not be blamed for that accident. It said the cause apparently stemmed from putting additional fill on loose fill that was in place. Wmslow resident Pete Lund said he was one of the haulers who brought the loose fill to the site.

"When it happened," he said, "I was hauling fill from Scott Paper, and I was the last truck on the riverbank when it collapsed."

Hermey said he knew of the collapse when he bought his home two years ago, but he was confident that his home would be fine, given that it has stood at its current location since 1920. Now he is not so sure. Hermey said the vibrations caused by snowplows on Dallaire Street are enough to shake his house.

In his five-page report, Sebago Technics' Robert G. Gerber, an environmental engineer, recommends that the Dallaire Street slope be monitored daily for soil movement for 30 days after the start of the dam removal.

So far, the Planning Board and dam owner FPL Energy have not discussed how to handle an evacuation of some Dallaire Street residents. That discussion is coming as part of the energy company's effort to get Planning Board approval to move ahead on the project, planner Elery Keene said.

Keene said relatives of people who live on Dallaire Street have urged him to make FPL Energy take responsibility for any damage that the dam removal may cause to property in that neighborhood. They also have argued that FPL Energy should cover any costs of evacuation, he said. Keene said planners could demand that FPL Energy satisfy those demands as a condition of approval. F. Allen Wiley of FPL Energy, however, said the energy company has had no discussion with the town about fiscal responsibilities for Dallaire Street residents.


SOURCE: PORTLAND PRESS-HERALD

DATE: 02-26-2008

Lakes:
Regions: Belgrade


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