After 13 years, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission has issued Westbrook-based Sappi Fine Paper a new operating license for the Eel Weir Dam, establishing a new Sebago Lake-level management regime for the next four decades.

The new requirements, which could lead to lower lake levels in the late summer, have buoyed environmentalists, who have criticized past lake-level plans, but they also worry boating interests on the lake, including homeowners and marinas.

The depth of Sebago Lake, the second largest in Maine, is controlled by the 1,350-foot-long, 22-foot-high dam, located at the head of the Presumpscot River, which flows to the ocean through Gorham, Standish, Windham, Westbrook and Falmouth. Under the new plan, the lake would rise higher in periods of significant rain or melting snowpack, while in periods of drought, the lake would be lower, mimicking a more natural cycle.

Since 1997, the lake has been managed in accordance with the commission-approved Lake Level Management Plan, which set six seasonal lake-level targets ranging between 262.5 feet above mean sea level (msl) and 266.65 feet msl, with the highest levels required between May and June and the lowest at the beginning of November. The new plan contains only one seasonal target – that the lake level measure 266 feet above msl between May 1 and June 15 every year.

In place of the predominantly fixed-target regime, the commission approved a flow-based regime, which enables Sappi to manage levels more flexibly between the range of 262 and 266.65 feet msl. Sappi now is required to run a total minimum water outflow into the Presumpscot River when lake levels reach the low of 262 feet above msl. The new flow regime is supposed to maintain an adequate supply of oxygen for fish in the Presumpscot River, which is popular among fishermen.

Sappi’s previous, 30-year dam operating license expired in 2004. The company applied for a new license in 2002. Brad Goulet, Sappi’s hydro manager, declined to comment Wednesday on the long-awaited license. Portland Water District officials and a FERC spokeswoman declined to comment on the new license, which was issued on March 23. Kathy Howatt, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection agency’s hydropower coordinator, said she had not had time to read the entire document yet.

“It is a long time coming and the department is pleased that it has been issued,” she said.

According to Ann Miles, the director of the federal commission’s Office of Energy Projects, the new regime will lead to greater variability in lake levels, a goal long sought by the environmental advocacy group, Friends of Sebago Lake, which has argued that the previous management plan has eroded the lake’s beaches, harmed its wetlands, and caused a consequent decline in water quality.

“Under average inflow conditions, S.D. Warren’s proposed operation would increase flood storage and decrease lake levels throughout most of the year when compared to current operation under the (lake level management plan),” Miles wrote. “Commission staff concluded that there would be some benefit under the flow-based regime from less shoreline erosion associated with more frequent lower lake levels, but the flow-based regime would result in lower lake levels during the recreation season, especially during dry, low inflow years.”

Under the previous plan, lake levels were required to hit 265.17 feet above msl on Aug. 1. Under the new plan, the only requirement in August is that Sappi pump through a minimum outflow level if levels reach as low as 262 feet.

Members of the Sebago Lake boating community find the new flexibility – especially during the recreational boating season – concerning. Charles Frechette, the owner of Sebago Lake Marina in Sebago and an outspoken advocate of uniform water levels for decades, said he was concerned by the new license, which could force marinas in shallow parts of the lake to extend their docks.

“Moosehead only drops 18 inches in the whole recreational season and Winnipesaukee only drops a foot,” Frechette said. “On Sebago Lake even under the current plan we’re dropping 2 feet from the legal limit on the 1st of August, and 4 feet in November. The new plan allows them to go down 5 feet from the legal limit pretty much at any point without having to go to minimum flow.”

Frechette, whose recommendation for a 263.5-foot fixed msl target on Oct. 15 was rejected by the commission, said the license had prioritized the interests of the Presumpscot River and Sappi’s power generation over the lake’s growing boating economy.

“I’m very disappointed in FERC,” he said. “I’m very disappointed in the state.”

Stephen Kasprzak, a past president of Friends of Sebago Lake, and a longtime advocate of lower lake levels, said he was “pleased” by the new water level regime.

“It certainly is better than what we have been operating with,” he said. “It will reduce the amount of beach and upland erosion that has been occurring. I think it will help restore the wetland function.”

The new regime eliminates another provision of the lake level management plan, which, in order to increase sand accretion on the lake’s beaches, required that Sappi draw down the lake to 261 feet or lower during the winter months in two out of every nine years – a target that the company has struggled to meet. In Kasprzak’s view, the lake’s beaches and water quality will improve if the new flow-based regime manages to allow lake levels to occasionally decline to well below 262 feet.

“The key to this is whether it gets down to 261, 260 in the early fall like it used to historically, once or twice a decade,” Kasprzak said. “If it does, the water quality will improve in my opinion. It will be improving water quality. If that does not happen it might remain where it is now in a stable water quality, neither improving or declining.”

To Peter Dunn, the president of Save Our Sebago, a watchdog group that has represented the interests of the lake’s boating community, such a decline would be a disaster.

“If there’s no water, and they’ve reduced the flow to the absolute minimum, we realize it could go lower,” Dunn said. “A lot of the boat launches are out of business, several of the marinas are out of business. Lots of fishermen cannot launch their boats. And many property owners are not able to keep their boats in the water. It keeps everybody using the lake practically out of business until Mother Nature gives us more water.”

Dunn said he was fairly “unhappy” with the new lake level regime, even if water levels remain within the new, broad range.

“In the summer, 262, that puts a lot of people out of business,” Dunn said. “The Frye Island ferry has a difficult time running at 262. Many boat launches cannot be utilized at 262. The Raymond boat launch over there is almost out of business at 262.”

Yet, Dunn said, he also received assurances from Sappi officials – whom he declined to name – that lake levels would not change drastically under the new license.

“They in effect said, ‘Give us a chance, they feel that more than likely we will not see a difference,’” Dunn said. “I’m optimistic they were not pulling the wool over our eyes. I think they were very honest in discussing the issue.”

“We’d like to see a little more teeth as to minimum water levels in the plan,” Dunn said. “I do say we’re going to have to live with them. We have to. There’s no choice now.”

But Frechette finds Sappi’s cautions less than assuring.

“Sappi pretty much says that we’re going to keep the lake levels the way they’ve been for the last 10 years,” Frechette said. “The problem is, if that’s the case, then put it in writing. But they didn’t. It should be part of the plan.”

Roger Wheeler, the president of Friends of Sebago Lake, is less enthused than his predecessor about the new regime. Wheeler, who believes the lake has been deteriorating since 1986 when the commission allowed lake levels to rise to appease marina owners, thinks the change in lake levels will be modest, and perhaps insufficient.

“It’s better than the present LLMP,” Wheeler said. “You won’t see the water level going much below 262, only in extreme, extreme droughts. It’s not that much difference. We’re going to see maybe a foot lower in August during the drier time, because they have to run a higher minimum flow.”

The license sets a number of conditions on Sappi’s use of the dam, apart from the lake level standards. Other conditions require Sappi to limit the flow releases during the landlocked Atlantic salmon season, and prepare a report on improving public boat access to Sebago Lake.

The license also requires Sappi to install upstream and downstream eel passage facilities on the Presumpscot River. Sappi currently has five downstream eel passages.

“Without safe and effective upstream passage, these eels may not be able to access the habitat upstream of Eel Weir Dam,” Miles wrote. “The required eel passage facilities will ensure that eels can access the habitat upstream of Eel Weir Dam.”

Sappi is required to construct and put into operation the eel passages within two years.

After more than a decade, a new license was issued Monday for the Eel Weir Dam, which controls the level of Sebago Lake.File photo