Court upholds FERC decision rejecting dam removal

By Lesley Clark | 01/14/2025 01:56 PM EST

FERC found that leaving the dams in place would not affect fisheries or federally protected species.

A person holds a gavel.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled FERC acted appropriately by not ordering the dismantling of a pair of dams along the Maine-New Hampshire border. Mark J. Terrill/AP

A federal court ruled Tuesday that U.S. energy regulators acted appropriately by not ordering the dismantling of a pair of dams along the border between Maine and New Hampshire.

Three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had not violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it found that the potential benefits of removing the Stone and Back dams on the Salmon Falls River were too speculative to justify.

The agency “reasonably determined that dam removal was unfeasible because local municipalities relied on the reservoir for key water needs,” Judge Karen Henderson wrote, adding that “the benefits to local municipalities of keeping the dams outweighed the benefits to the environment and recreation from removal.”

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American Whitewater — a conservation group working to restore America’s whitewater rivers — had challenged FERC’s decision, arguing at oral arguments in November that the waterway would be used if it were to be restored.

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