You or I might look at this view from Friar’s Head and appreciate the beauty, try to take a photograph, plan a boating trip, or wonder if that Lighthouse on Cherry Island really does work (yes, usually). A Civil Engineer, however, looked at this gorgeous vista and asked himself “How can I f*ck this up, make some money for the military/industrial complex, and etch my name in history?”.
The man in question was Dexter Cooper. Dex (as we’ll call him) had married very well and so was lucky enough to convalesce after some surgery at his Mother-in-Law’s retreat on Campobello Island. He looked at this view and thought “I could build a dam.” One of his MiL’s neighbours was Franklin Roosevelt. Dex took his idea to FDR and the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project was born. Although abandoned due to lack of funding in later years, it has never actually died.
For the sake of brevity I’m going to jump forward to 1963. The Great Depression and a World War having killed the Project (which was actually underway), some great minds decided to take another look at harnessing the tides in this area and thus provide electric power to deserving customers. The resulting report is fascinating.
One difference between this analysis and that done years earlier is that there is an attempt to factor in the impact of the dams (because it requires more than one) on fisheries and the environment. Not that it made any difference. Anyway the clam flats would probably come back and the changes in water temperature and PH wouldn’t kill that many fish. The project was declared both feasible and beneficial.
Have some patience with this next map. It’s full of some (to me at least) gobsmacking detail.
The little red dot is where I sat when I watched the Eclipse and where I took the “pretty” pictures this morning. There are (I think) 6 dams in total – one is above the edge of the map. In addition, there are a series of locks because, um, boats. Campobello winds up looking like a kebab with dams on each end.
This quote from the report sent me down a rabbit hole trying to understand what they were describing: The cofferdams required for construction of the filling and emptying gates, as well as for navigation locks and the powerhouse, would be subjected to heads as high as 60 feet, whereas the heads on the completed structures would not exceed 26 feet.
I thought they must be talking about walls under the water. Surely there wouldn’t be these giant structures visible above the surface. I was wrong. One of the benefits mentioned would be 7 miles of road along the top of the dams/heads. There would be no more need for a ferry between the Islands! You can just make out the notation for Friar Roads on the image.
There is a book about the Project called Moondoggle. The person who first mentioned the dams to me said the Author was here last summer talking to visitors at the Park and his book is being sold in the Gift Shop. I’ll check it out. However, if it costs as much there as it does on Amazon I’m going to stick with my Google Search results.
As I mentioned earlier, the Project isn’t exactly dead. There are many voices calling for hydroelectric power generated by the tides. The ways to do that are many – attempts keep being made to put big turbines in the water but Poseidon defeats them every time.
A comment on the Moondoggle listing says: Great book on the the mess progressive government, politics and the media made on a major renewable energy project. I invite this person to come and have a chat with a few fishermen. 🙂
This Fundy Migrant's Tale 
The mind… boggles.
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