The Future of the Kennebunk Dams

On Thursday July 20th, the Board of Selectmen for the Town of Kennebunk held a workshop to gather information regarding the Town’s potential role in the future of three dams along the Mousam River in Kennebunk, Maine. The Board workshop was centered around a presentation prepared by Verrill Dana attorneys Scott Anderson and Jim Cohen. During the meeting, Anderson presented four options for the future of the dams, including whether or not to conduct an independent “peer review” of the economics of retaining or abandoning the dams. The issue of retaining the hydro licenses on the dams arose earlier in the year when the owner of the dams, Kennebunk Light & Power District, gave notice to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it planned to surrender their license to generate electricity from the dams. Following the presentation, the Board of Selectman met the following day and voted to commence the study, but not to file a notice of intent to assume the hydro licenses. For more information about the Board’s meetings, go to Seacoast Online, which covered both meetings.