FERC Ends Woodland Pulp's Hydropower, Hands Border Dam to Conservation Nonprofit
The Baileyville mill exits after nearly a decade, avoiding a drawdown opponents said would have permanently lowered lake levels by six to seven feet.
Federal regulators have approved Woodland Pulp's request to surrender its license for the Forest City Dam, which crosses the U.S.-Canada border and helps set water levels on East Grand Lake and North Lake, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signed off in late January 2026. Once the order is final, the Baileyville paper mill will turn the dam over to the St. Croix International Waterway Commission, a nonprofit, and its hydropower generation downstream will stop. Neal Berry, the commission's executive director, said he expects the handover to be complete in a few months.
FERC concluded the change is in the public interest because the dam will be operated for environmental, recreational and other nonpower uses. Anna Levitsky of the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust said it will be managed for wildlife, recreation and flood control rather than electricity.
The mill first applied to give up the 30-year license in 2016, when federal requirements became too expensive. That plan would have taken out two of three spillway gates, which opponents said would have permanently lowered lake levels by six to seven feet, and it met resistance on both sides of the border. Woodland Pulp withdrew it in 2023, filed a new application and has agreed to keep running the dam daily as the commission directs.
In 2024, the Passamaquoddy Nation sought to intervene against the surrender, saying it was unclear how alewife, American eel, shad and blueback herring would be protected.
This story was first reported by Bangor Daily News.
