BRATTLEBORO — Since late 2012, five hydroelectric facilities in the heart of the Connecticut River have been in the process of renewing their operating licenses, which are issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
The Wilder, Bellows Falls, and Vernon dams in Vermont and New Hampshire, and the Northfield Mountain Pump Station and Turners Falls Dam in Massachusetts, impact more than 175 miles of the Connecticut River. Later this summer, members of the public will have what may be their last chance to have a say in the final licenses that will endure for the next 30 to 50 years.
The last time these hydro facilities were licensed was 1979. As a result of that licensing process, fish passage facilities were built at all three dams in Vermont and New Hampshire to support the restoration of our native migratory Atlantic salmon and American shad.
While the attempt to restore Atlantic salmon failed, we still have a chance to support the restoration of American shad, sea lamprey, blueback herring, and American eel populations in the river, as well as the resident species, by advocating for more-effective fish passage through these facilities.
These species have been migrating up this river to spawn for thousands of years. This year, we have an opportunity to provide them a better chance for them to thrive. The decisions that result from this relicensing will affect our river and these fish until we revisit this license in or around 2060.
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Every year, for decades, hundreds of thousands of American shad have been successfully lifted via a fish elevator over the Holyoke dam, only to be stymied by the next obstacle upstream - the Turners Falls dam. On average, only about 5 percent of those migratory shad are able to pass the Turners Falls dam and move successfully up the river to Vernon.
A 5 percent passage rate is unacceptable. At the Vernon dam, about 43 percent pass in any given year, but that number should be higher. And the shad are exhausted. The shad migrating into the Connecticut River, on average, spawn only once or twice, when they should be able to spawn for three years in a row.
Unlike the sea lamprey population in Lake Champlain, sea lampreys in the Connecticut River are native and an important part of the river ecosystem. Each obstacle they encounter threatens their opportunity to reproduce and sustain populations of this native fish in local rivers.
American eel live their adult lives in our rivers and migrate out to sea to spawn. Having to make their way downstream, many of them go through the turbines in the hydro facilities.
Based on studies over the past eight years, we now know that if 100 healthy adult eels begin their migration downstream, only about 40 would make it alive to the Massachusetts border. A 60 percent mortality rate is unacceptable. Fish that do survive incur injuries as they pass downstream through the turbines.
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While Great River Hydro, the owner of the Wilder, Bellows Falls and Vernon dams, has proposed significant positive operational changes in its revised application, the firm has offered little other detail to address migratory fish passage.
Great River indicates that it will hold discussions with resource agencies, but in the meantime has provided little information in the application for the public to comment on. All stakeholders should be involved in these discussions, and the company's application is not complete until it includes a plan to improve fish passage.
We need to push for changes to fish ladders at all of these facilities to support the restoration of these species by increasing fish passage effectiveness, accommodating their migration timing, and improving safety.
The goal is to provide safe, effective, and timely upstream and downstream fish passage for migratory species, while allowing resident species to move around for spawning and rearing.
This could be accomplished by:
• Improving the effectiveness of the Vernon, Bellows Falls, and Wilder fish ladders to accommodate diadromous species such as American shad, American eel, and sea lamprey.
• Utilizing alternate means to pass American eel if the ladders cannot adequately provide effective and timely passage.
• Implementing structural and/or operational changes to provide safe, effective, and timely downstream passage for American eel, American shad, and juvenile sea lamprey.
• Expanding fishway operation to accommodate resident riverine species such as walleye and sucker that make spawning migrations.
• Continuing to test and gather information to ensure that these facilities do not continue to cause delay, injury, and mortality of these ecologically important species.
Comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by local communities, the states, and individuals are needed to ensure that the new license requires improvements for fish passage to increase the health of our river and protect our migratory species.
If we don't act now to help sustain this fishery for our children, the next opportunity won't come until they are our age.
Let's fix this now so we don't pass this problem on to the next generation.