Fish Friendly Churchill Dam
Maine Department of Conservation
Augusta, ME
Maine’s Allagash River is the premier canoeing, angling and wilderness camping waterway in the Northeastern U.S., and a haven for wild brook trout of great significance as this is the last remaining watershed in the northeast with a native, unstocked coldwater fishery. Churchill Dam is essential for maintaining flows throughout the summer for both recreational and environmental needs along the 62-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
A new dam was built at the outlet of Churchill Lake in 1998, replacing an old timber crib dam. The new dam, designed by Kleinschmidt for the Maine Department of Conservation (DOC), was designed to provide:
- recreational flow releases,
- enhanced fish passage between the river and the Churchill-Eagle lake flowage, and
- managed river flows and lake levels to enhance coldwaterfish habitat in both the Allagash River and lake flowages.
Kleinschmidt was tasked with conducting planning studies to ensure that the new dam was an environmental success story. The goal was to define a set of operating rules for Maine DOC to follow so that river flow management could be optimized for all resource uses. Habitat considerations included the impacts of lake levels on spawning lake trout and the impacts of instream flows on brook trout. The dam was constructed with a fish ladder, and improved gates capable of better flow control than the original gates. Kleinschmidt modeled riverine habitat with Physical Habitat Simulation (PHABSIM) as part of an Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) study to identify flows that optimize brook trout habitat in the main river below the dam while providing suitable canoeing flows. A basinwide water budget was developed so that the effect of river flow releases on lake levels could also be balanced in order to evaluate rule curve changes that permitted fall lake level targets to be met.
Major Issues:
- Recreation Flows
- Fish Passage
- Habitat Quality
- Lake Level Impacts