OLD TOWN (AP) – A Pennsylvania-based power company has agreed to sell three dams on the Penobscot River to a coalition of government agencies and private groups intent on restoring runs of Atlantic salmon to the river.

The deal, announced Monday on the banks of the Penobscot River, gives the coalition the option to purchase the Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams from PPL Corp. of Bethlehem, Penn., for $25 million within five years.

The coalition – which includes the state, the U.S. Department of Interior, conservation groups and the Penobscot Indian tribe – plans to remove two of the dams and build a fish bypass around the third. The agreement allows PPL to increase power generation at six other dams it operates.

Dennis Murphy, a PPL vice president, said the pact balances the company’s obligation to shareholders and customers with its commitment to the environment.

Coalition leaders said the agreement will give salmon and other sea-run fish improved access to more than 500 miles of river habitat.

“It’s truly a win-win situation for PPL, for the Penobscot Indian Nation, for people and businesses that will benefit from a restored fish run, and for the environment,” Murphy said.

Hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon used to swim from the ocean to New England rivers each year to spawn. But the region’s entire seasonal run has averaged little more than 1,000 fish for the last four years, according to official counts.

The agreement announced Monday is the latest attempt to improve salmon stocks.

Over the past 35 years, efforts to bring back salmon by upgrading fish passages at dams, banning fishing and stocking about 200 million of the fish in rivers have failed to revitalize the fish populations.

Some estimate that more than $200 million has been spent in the process.

Atlantic salmon was listed in 2000 as an endangered species in eight Maine river, including a tributary of the Penobscot.

Coalition members say buying and removing the dams on the Penobscot will allow the fish to reach their spawning habitat, an “essential ingredient” to bring back populations of salmon and other fish that migrate to the river each year.

AP-ES-10-06-03 1406EDT