The condition persisted until Brookfield crews could open a deep gate located at Ripogenus Dam to increase the flows.Ī section of the West Branch of the Penobscot River is shown running low, with exposed rocks along the shore, after a recent failure of the Brookfield Renewable Energy hydroelectric project at McKay Station below Ripogenus Dame. Monday was listed as 2,448 cubic feet per second. The minimum flow on Fridays during the summer is set at 2,220 cubic feet per second. ![]() According to Maine Trout Unlimited, Brookfield’s SafeWaters website posted a flow of only 100 cubic feet per second at 7 p.m. That and other lightning strikes damaged lightning arrestors and hydro units at McKay Station, which is located 30 miles west of Millinocket.īrookfield responded by shutting down two units at McKay Station, which was unable to maintain its required whitewater recreation water flows. Credit: Courtesy of Sarah SindoĪccording to Brookfield’s report on the incident to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filed on July 21, a lightning strike involving a Versant Power transmission line caused all of the hydro stations on the Penobscot River to go offline. The rocks in the West Branch of the Penobscot River were exposed and boats left high and dry after a recent failure at the McKay Station caused the hydroelectric project to stop moving sufficient water downstream. He said the part of the river designated for fish reproduction and rearing and protected under the FERC license would have been left without water during the event. Spear said alevin, salmon in the larval stage, have difficulty dealing with the kind of sudden change in water flow that occurred on the West Branch. “The timing of this disastrous outage could not be worse as it occurred during the peak fish and aquatic growing season and a prime angling period and it occurred during daylight hours.” “Essentially, the entire West Branch 2023 salmon year class was eliminated,” said Ed Spear, a retired fisheries biologist formerly employed by Great Northern Paper, an owner of the Ripogenus Dam before Brookfield.
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