A version of this article was originally published in The Daily Brief, our Maine politics newsletter. Sign up here for daily news and insight from politics editor Michael Shepherd.
BATH, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills on Thursday accused the owner of four Kennebec River dams of “playing politics” in a regulatory dispute weighing on her reelection campaign with former Gov. Paul LePage.
Last year, the state advanced a plan that would remove the dams to improve passage for endangered Atlantic salmon and other fish. It was quickly dropped due to a state legal error and the Democratic governor backed off further into the summer after pushback focused on effects on the Sappi pulp and paper mill in Skowhegan, which relies on water levels at the dam.
The sides are locked in battle as the election between Mills and her Republican predecessor closes in. In a campaign marked by inflation and high costs, LePage has singled out the issue, calling a news conference last month to hammer Mills after the state said it would deny a water-quality permit for the Shawmut Dam in Fairfield.
The state affirmed that procedural move month. It came after changes to fish-passage plans filed before a federal regulator and does not change the dam’s operations for now. The subsidiary of the global investment giant Brookfield Asset Management, which owns the dams, is expected to file another permit application. But Sappi has said the process is casting uncertainty over the mill and the union there says it is blocking investment.
At an event in Bath on Thursday, Mills was defiant when asked about Brookfield, quickly noting it is one of the world’s biggest companies of its kind. She said it is “playing politics” with the issue and it should not “make people feel their jobs are at risk because they are not.” The mill employs 750 people.
“The mill will stay open. The dam stays up,” Mills said. “But there are ways to accommodate the fish and the economy of western Maine.”
At the heart of the dispute is a disagreement on fish-passage improvements. Brookfield’s plan would allow an estimated 96 percent of fish to pass through the Shawmut Dam both ways, while the state has argued for a 99 percent standard. Federal regulators have called the company’s plan sufficient, while environmental groups have said removal is the best solution.
Brookfield responded to Mills by saying it appreciated the governor’s recent statements, but that the state’s plan does not make economic sense and would lead to decommissioning the dam.
“If she is committed to saving Shawmut, the governor must abandon these proposals,” spokesperson David Heidrich said.
Mills’ comments make clear that she is still putting the onus on Brookfield to make improvements even after dropping a hard line on the dam. The issue remains raw at the end of the campaign. A LePage strategist called the governor’s position “outrageous.”
“It is Janet Mills who is playing politics with people’s jobs, their lives, and Maine’s economy,” Brent Littlefield said in a statement.
