FAQ’s – Brunswick Dam Fish Passage

As Free the Andro expands its community outreach, the following are a few of the many questions it has received.

Androscoggin River

Tell me about the Androscoggin River

178 miles long
Watershed of 3,530 square miles
Starts in Maine then runs through New Hampshire and back into Maine, ending in Merrymeeting Bay where it joins the Kennebeck before flowing to the sea at Fort Popham.

Isn’t the Andro a cesspool?

Since enactment of the Clean Water Act the Andro has consistently improved in water quality. Just recently the classification was upgraded to “Class B” from Lisbon Falls to Merrymeeting Bay.
“Class B” generally designates a water body with high water quality, suitable for various uses like recreation, aquatic life support, and agricultural uses. Class B waters are typically required to be suitable for fish and other aquatic life, including their reproduction, migration, growth, and other critical functions. They also need to be suitable for primary and secondary contact recreation, meaning activities like swimming and boating are appropriate.

Do people really use it?

The Andro is being actively used for recreational boating, fishing, and swimming.

Was the Androscoggin the birthplace of the Clean Water Act?

The Clean Water Act, was significantly influenced by Maine’s experience with polluted rivers, particularly the Androscoggin River. Senator Edmund Muskie, a Maine native, played a key role in drafting and securing the passage of the Act in 1972.

Brunswick-Topsham Dam

Can you tell me about the Brunswick-Topsham dam?

Completed in 1982
Has a capacity for 19 megawatts power generation but actual energy production is generally less than that and varies by year. While exact figures are not presently available, Brookfield White Pine Hydro, LLC, the dam’s owner, reported in 2024 that the facility maintains an average annual production of approximately 10 megawatts. This corresponds to an output of roughly 90,000 kWh of electricity per year, sufficient to supply power to around 13,000 homes. This is the equivalent of roughly 100 to 200 acres of solar farm production.
The dam spans the entire river and makes fish migration impossible without adequate engineered fish passage.

How long has a dam been in that location?

This version of dam has been here since 1982
Since 1753 some form of dam has been in this general location. Initially small dams were made of wood, earth, and stone and did not block the entire river. These dams were regularly washed away in floods.
Over time dam sizes increased, used more durable materials such as concrete, and eventually completely blocked the river.

Has the dam always blocked fish passage?

This version of the dam, a 20 to 40 foot tall concrete wall spanning the river, has always seriously restricted fish passage.
Data shows extremely small to zero numbers for fish species using the fish ladder.

Who is Brookfield?

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. owns Brookfield White pine Hydro, LLC and is a publicly traded limited partnership that owns and operates renewable power assets, with corporate headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is 60% owned by Brookfield Asset Management.

Does Brookfield care about fish passage at its dams?

Brookfield does make efforts to address fish passage but it is not a major priority in its operation.
Brookfield acknowledges that the current fish ladder does not adequately facilitate fish migration.

Fish Passage

Why should we care about fish passage at the dam?

As the first dam on the Androscoggin river, without improved fish passage, the dam acts as a barrier restricting access to 3,530 square miles of watershed. It is hard to calculate the lost biological productivity that results from this barrier to migratory fish access to historic inland range, but research suggests major impacts on downstream commercial fish stocks, and upstream ecological productivity.

How do we know the passage is not working?

Fish counts are regularly made at the top of the fish ladder to monitor fish that make it over the barrier. T