Reconsidering the Brunswick Dam

Welcome to The Brunswick Dam Fish Passage Resource Library!

The federal government is reviewing the 50 year license of the Brunswick Dam which will expire before the end of this decade. Over the next few years there will be several public input opportunities on conditions for extending the license. Our goal is to provide stakeholders with centrally located and easily accessible information to facilitate informed, productive discussions. This website is intended as growing platform with regular updates and changes as the debate develops.

Please subscribe in the left side box to stay up to date on events and developments. If you know anyone that might be interested please share our address (https://courses.bowdoin.edu/brunswick-dam-fish-passage/).

Brunswick Dam Fish Ladder Design is a failure

Since its completion in 1982 the dam has been a complete barrier to unassisted fish passage into the Androscoggin watershed. The fish ladder has met less than 1% of federal goals for the fish passage when built and is generally acknowledged as a failure. As the first dam on the river, and located at the head of tide, this dam locks the door to the entire watershed.

But Recovery Is Possible – Judging By The Edwards Dam Experience

This data is contributed by John Lichter. The graph shows river herring passage in the Androscoggin compared to two neighboring rivers where fish passage has been improved.

Figure 1.  River herring passage at Brunswick on the Androscoggin River, Damariscotta Mills, and Benton Falls on the Sebasticook River between 2000-2023 in millions of fish passed. Estimates of potential river herring production are 2.7 million for the Androscoggin, 1 million for Damariscotta Mills, and 5.3 million for the Sebasticook. By 2009, two dams had been removed and three fish lifts installed on the remaining dams in the Sebasticook/Kennebec system allowing passage of millions of river herring. By 2017, the Damariscotta Mills fishway had been reconstructed allowing passage of ~1 million alewives each year into a single lake. The Androscoggin, however, has been left behind with inadequate fish passage. The fishway at Brunswick has only passed 71,087 river herring on average each year between 2000 and 2023, only 2.6% of its potential productivity. Also, very few American shad are able to navigate the Brunswick fishway (data not shown).

For a more in depth presentation on the issues we produced this video.