Milltown Dam removal between New Brunswick and Maine hits demolition benchmark

Work to remove a 142-year-old dam between New Brunswick and Maine is approaching a major benchmark.

NB Power says the demolition of the Milltown Dam’s powerhouses is nearly complete on the Canadian side of the St. Croix River, allowing for demolition to begin on the U.S. side.

The $20-million project is on schedule and should be finished next spring, according to NB Power.

Crews in St. Stephen, N.B. and Calais, M.E. began dismantling the dam in July.

Removal of the dam, built in 1881, is expected to restore about 16 kilometers of the St. Croix River.

“We’ve got a shot at bringing the river back a little closer to the life and vibrancy it once held,” says Matthew Abbott, the New Brunswick Conservation Council’s Fundy Baykeeper.

Removal of the dam will make about five million square metres of spawning habitat available to various fish species.

The population of fish was around 2.5 million in the 1980s, but it plummeted to just under 1,000 in 2002.

Abbott says fish counts in the St. Croix River topped out around 50,000 a decade ago, but began approaching 800,000 this past spring.

“The potential for fish in this river starts at 10 million,” says Abbott. “We’re already approaching a million, so things are going well. It’s exciting to see.”

Abbott says the return of alewife is particularly encouraging because it will supply food for other species.

“We’re doing things in the right order,” says Abbott. “We’re getting the fish that are the base of the food chain back first, and as we restore those fish it becomes much more possible to help other species that rely on that fish.”

NB Power announced its plans to decommission the Milltown Dam in 2019 and received the final go-ahead from Maine‘s Department of Environmental Protection in 2022. The Milltown Dam accounted for 0.8 per cent of NB Power’s total hydroelectricity output.

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