The Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project/"Quoddy Dam" Project
A proposed development project for eastern Maine, envisioned by hydroelectric engineer Dexter Cooper, involving the construction of a
tidal harness for
electricity generation was initiated in 1935 under U.S.
Public Works Administration funding and with the blessing of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose summer home was on nearby
Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada.
Also known as the
Quoddy Project, it proposed impounding
Cobscook Bay and part of Passamaquoddy Bay with a series of dams and control structures to exploit the resulting water level difference to generate electrical power. The electric turbines for power generation would have been located at the isthmus on Moose Island, Eastport, with the water passing between Passamaquoddy Bay and Cobscook Bay, with the "used" generating water released from impoundment at low tide.
Part of this project was completed by the construction of
dikes built between
Pleasant Point–
Carlow Island–
Moose Island. The project was suspended one year later after the
United States Congress refused further funding, thus the actual barrier dams never being built. The dike barriers now underlie the former
Maine Central Railroad and the current
Maine Highway 190, as well as between Treat Island (in Eastport) and Dudley Island (in Lubec, Maine).
Several iterations and variations on the project later ensued, but never began construction.
