LEWISTON — The city would take ownership of the historic downtown canal, giving up rights to about half of the water that flows through them, according to a deal being reviewed by City Councilors on Tuesday.
City Councilors are scheduled to discuss a draft of an agreement that would give the city ownership of the downtown canals, allowing the city to put them to municipal use.
Discussion is scheduled during the council’s 6 p.m. workshop meeting, in the City Council chambers in Lewiston City Hall.
The city has been in negotiations to take over the canals since 2008. The canals were dug in mid 1800s and were first owned by Union Power. That was later taken over by Central Maine Power, which was later purchased by Florida Power and Light, later renamed NextEra Energy Maine.
The city and NextEra were close to an agreement in 2012 when the company withdrew and later sold its assets to Canada-based Brookfield Renewable Power.
According to the memo included in Tuesday’s agenda packet, the city has been working with Brookfield to negotiate a trade.
The canals run for 1.5 miles through the downtown, beginning just downstream of the great falls and rejoining the river just south of Locust Street. The system includes two main canals, upper and lower, and two cross canals. Water levels are controlled by the gate house at the top canal system.
They were built to power Lewiston’s mills and still generate electricity.
Currently, the city has rights to the first 150 cubic feet per second of water flowing through the canals.
The city has long considered the canals a downtown asset. They are a major factor in the Riverfront Island Master Plan, adopted by the city in 2012, which called using them as a recreational asset.
According to the negotiations with NextEra, the city would create a tax increment finance district around the Monty Hydro Facility and the Deer Rips Dam. Proceeds from that TIF would pay for $750,000 of repairs to the canal and the weirs. The city would give up right to all but 70 cubic feet of water per second through the canals. That would be supplemented by occasional flows of 224 cubic feet per second several times per year to flush the canals.
According to the Tuesday’s City Council agenda, the latest round of negotiations would do away with the TIF district and the $750,000 in repairs to the canal.
Lewiston would still give up its claim to 150 cubic feet per second of water, accepting the smaller 70 cubic feet of water per second flow.
Comments are no longer available on this story