Last month’s news that the State of Maine, environmental organizations, a power company and two Maine Indian tribes had come up with a plan to remove two dams on the Penobscot River represented a shift in values and a re-alignment of priorities that’s worth watching.
Like the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec that was removed several years ago, the two on the Penobscot were built more than a century ago when one of the highest-value uses of a river was the development of hydropower. Dams still generate a lot of electricity in Maine and other states, but some of them do so at the expense of sea-run fisheries, recreation and water quality – non-energy values that came to the fore in the last third of the 20th century. Now, in recognition of that shift in values, it’s time to take the dams down.
But demolishing obsolete dams is also part of the de-industrialization of coastal Maine, a phenomenon closely related to the transformation of former mill buildings, working piers and working harbors into upscale offices, pricey waterfront properties and locales for leisure activities. Despite many commendable examples of recycling and re-use, the bottom line is still troubling: as home-grown enterprises that once provided employment and wealth have withered, the value of coastal real estate has soared, leaving behind what amounts to a series of coastal theme parks dedicated to tourism and recreation. The decline in traditional jobs, coupled with the depletion of natural resources and a property tax system that seems to penalize anyone who merely wants to stay in the community where he or she grew up are conspiring to destroy coastal Maine as we have known it.
The working coast is in deep trouble. De-industrialization is good when it means removing obsolete dams; it’s something else when it destroys communities.