Representatives from the 5 Town Dam Committee met at the Bucksport Town Office on Wednesday, February 26th to discuss new developments regarding Bucksport Mill LLC’s petition to abandon the Toddy, Alamoosook, and Silver Lake dams.
Legislative Update
In an effort to craft a potential ownership model for Alamoosook and Toddy dams, which will be the subject of a bipartisan legislative initiative, the 4 impacted towns, Orland, Surry, Penobscot and Blue Hill, have undertaken extensive efforts to assess the potential impacts of the lakes being drained as a result of Bucksport Mill LLC’s dam abandonment petition. The group assessed the property tax loss implications, the impact on local businesses, and an estimation of the environmental and recreational impacts.
The group conducted an on-line survey of community members to gauge support for retaining the dams and gather input on the structure of the entity that could own the dams. A series of public meetings was also held to gather additional input. The business impacts were explored via a survey to businesses in the region. Recordings of the public meetings and other relevant materials can be found on the Town of Surry website
Community members voiced strong support for maintaining the lakes. The majority also responded that the cost and governance of dam management should be a shared responsibility between the towns and the lakefront property owners.
Of the businesses that responded to the survey, 93% said that draining the lakes would have a negative impact on their business. In fact, 9 businesses stated that they would be very or somewhat likely to close their business within 3 years of the lakes disappearing.
The 4 towns working with our State legislators expect to have draft legislation establishing an ownership authority read for committee consideration in early March. Once the legislation is enacted, each town will have to vote on the willingness of the citizens to be part of an ownership structure. This vote would most likely occur in the fall.
Data from Bucksport Mill LLC
In response to information requests from the 5 towns made to Bucksport Mill LLC in November, we received a reply to that request on 2/21/25. The documents provided were extensive. The towns are undertaking a review of the materials to determine if the initial questions have been addressed and to develop a list of follow-up questions. We expect the analysis to be complete in the next month or so.
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