fish farm) opened in response to the declining population of American eel. Pollution Edwards Dam was originally built to serve the needs of paper mills, which made use of the abundant lumber in the area. These paper mills severely polluted the river, which led to the demise of the last of the striped bass . Towns rose along the banks of the Kennebec in response to the construction of these paper mills. Eventually, by the 1950s, raw sewage flowed into the river in amounts excessive enough to create a strong stench. The river became choked by logs from logging operations upstream, creating stagnation. Oxygen levels in the water plunged, creating major fish kills in 1947, 1957, 1963, and 1965. Indeed, it was said that "the windows of the Maine State House near the river were kept shut during the hot summer months to keep out the river’s foul odor." Removal The Edwards Dam's license expired in 1997, and the dam owners wished to renew it. However, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) refused grant their request. This was the first such incidence in the history of the United States and was linked to a 1986 Federal law that requires to "balance the environmental impact of a dam against the value of the electricity it produces" to be monitored by the FERC. Edwards Dam did not pass this requirement and FERC offered two choices to the dam owners: Remove the dam Spend $8.9 million to build a fish ladder and an additional $1 million to help repair the environmental damage. Because the Edwards Dam did not serve any of the purposes of flood control, irrigation, or substantial hydropower production, there was much more purpose to bring it down. Less than one-thousandth of Maine's electricity needs, or 3.5 megawatts, depended on Edwards Dam. Only four people relied on income generated by the dam. Bath Iron Works and the Kennebec Hydro Developers Group, owners of upstream dams, provided $7.25 million to remove the Edwards Dam. Upstream fish passage projects were postponed in return for this offer. Removal process Several stages were involved in the removal of the Edwards Dam. Crews constructed a gravel cofferdam, about long upstream of the Edwards Dam. They then dynamited the 60-feet of the dam it sheltered. This temporary dam was removed on July 1, 1999, which reduced the water level in the reservoir by fifty percent. Then, they