BANGOR, Maine — Repeated winter storms and record cold conditions have hampered the U.S. Coast Guard’s ice cutting operations on the Penobscot River, raising concern among some officials that ice jams could cause flooding in the spring.

The Coast Guard’s 65-foot ice breakers have not been able to get within a half-mile of the Veterans Remembrance Bridge that connects Bangor and Brewer, according to Chief Warrant Officer and ice mission manager Bob Albert.





“The ice pack is too thick, too strong and the snow pack is too thick,” he said Tuesday.

Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency Director Michelle Tanguay said officials are not sure how thick the ice is, but the Coast Guard boats can normally break through about 18 inches of ice.

The cutters normally come as far up river as the Sea Dog Brewing Co. near the mouth of the Kenduskeag Stream, according to Tanguay.

“They were here, they just didn’t get as far up the river as we all wanted,” she said.

Since the removal of the Veazie Dam in 2013, some officials have expressed concern that without Coast Guard ice breaking operations, ice jams could form as large sheets of ice normally broken by the dam make their way down the river.

That could cause flooding, they say.

“Because they removed that, it’s kind of changed the dynamics of the river, so nobody is really sure how the river is going to react,” Dana Wardwell, Bangor Public Works director, said recently.

“Removing that dam has now increased our risk for the potential of ice jams,” Tanguay said. “With more ice jams, the potential for flooding is more severe.”

Tanguay said the emergency management agency continues to monitor the river and that flood potential is currently low.

According to Tanguay, the ice is thicker this year because of record cold temperatures and heavy snowfall that insulated the ice and created snowpack.

The Coast Guard is well aware of the concerns of local officials, and already is planning a mission later this month to break up the ice in Bangor using the 140-foot Coast Guard Cutter Thunder Bay.

“We continuously monitor the ice jam flood potential,” Albert said Tuesday. “Right now, the ice jam flood potential [in Bangor] is normal or below normal. We have been monitoring it throughout the season.”

Flooding could occur with extended lengths of above-freezing weather or heavy rain.

While forecasters are predicting temperatures in the 40s later this week, Albert said, they are not calling for extended warmer weather.

“As long as it’s a gradual warming up for the next three weeks, we’ll be OK,” Albert said.

Members of the Coast Guard and U.S. Geological Survey went to the Kennebec River on Tuesday to collect core samples that “will be used to determine the ice jam flooding potential for the Kennebec,” Albert said.

The cores collected were between 11 and 17 inches thick and consisted of “snow, sludge and ice,” Albert said.

The ice core data will be presented to the River Flow Advisory Commission at a meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday in Augusta.

In addition to the thick ice, repeated storms have prevented the vessels from navigating up the Penobscot River.

“The weather has been too bad to send our guys up,” Albert said.

The Thunder Bay is currently breaking ice in the Hudson River in New York to open up travel routes for petroleum and heating oil, Albert said.

“We’re planning an operation to break ice on the Penobscot River with the 140 [-foot Thunder Bay] and at least two 65-footers,” he said of the ice cutting vessels.

“We gave it hell up there with the 65s. We did our best,” Albert said.

Tanguay said it’s not unusual for the Penobscot to freeze so thick that the cutters can’t get through, but it’s difficult to predict when that will occur.