LEWISTON, Maine — Now that summer has unofficially begun and boaters are hitting the water following Memorial Day weekend, Tuesday was national Dam Safety Awareness Day.
Brookfield Renewable is the largest dam operator in Maine and the country, and owns 38 hydroelectric dams in the Pine Tree State. During the week leading up to the holiday, workers at Brookfield installed boat barriers at nearly all of its sites, stringing orange plastic buoys across rivers upstream from its dams.
David Heidrich, a Brookfield spokesperson, said it’s their responsibility to keep people safe in the places where the state allows them to block waterways to generate power.
"Along with that benefit of using a public resource comes the responsibility to provide recreational opportunities for individuals in communities and to ensure that they’re doing so safely," Heidrich said, standing next to the Gulf Island Dam, which spans the Androscoggin River between Lewiston and Auburn. It's one of three successive Brookfield dams that cross the river in the twin cities.
"Installing boater barriers is one way of doing that," he continued. "But that extends even into the winter months when we have individuals who are recreating with snow machines and are approaching what could be, potentially, thin ice around our hydro facilities. It's truly a year-round effort."
Dams are also equipped with an air horn, which workers use to warn people who might be downriver and nearby as the facility is about to open its floodgates.
Brookfield has installed boat portages around many of its dams, allowing for small boats to be carried out upstream and back in the water farther down current.