AUGUSTA – A state board is scheduled Wednesday to consider an order denying water quality certification for the Flagstaff Storage Project.
The Board of Environmental Protection’s meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the Holiday Inn/Ground Round in Augusta.
The board heard arguments in April on an appeal of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of water certification for the project.
The project consists of Long Falls Dam, Flagstaff Lake, and facilities on the Dead River in Spring Lake township, Carrying Place township, Dead River township, Bigelow township, Flagstaff township and the town of Eustis.
The project was originally licensed to Central Maine Power Co. by the federal energy regulators in 1979 with an expiration date of Dec. 31, 1997. FPL Energy Maine-Hydro acquired the project from CMP in 1999.
Maine Rivers, Trout Unlimited, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Natural Resources Council of Maine filed an appeal Dec. 9, 2003. The town of Eustis filed a separate appeal that the board has not considered.
The nongovernmental organizations argued that the water quality certification did not apply pertinent water quality standards to the winter drawdowns of Flagstaff Lake, standards that had been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and required by the federal Clean Water Act. Consequently, the groups argued, the certification did not meet the standards, absent a federally approved use-attainability analysis.
The board also heard arguments in April from the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Attorney General’s Office regarding the standards for water quality.
The board subsequently voted to direct staff to draft a new order granting the appeal and denying, without prejudice, water quality certification for the Flagstaff Storage Project.
The new order would make no findings with respect to allowable drawdowns of Flagstaff Lake, and the proposed order would concur that the certification does not comply with state water quality standards approved by Environmental Protection Agency.
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