With just two years to complete the engineering, design and construction needed for fish passage at Saccarappa Falls, stakeholders in the project want to move ahead.

Barry Stemm, a senior engineer at Sappi Fine Paper, led a public meeting Wednesday on the current state and next steps for the project, which is now exploring options to remove the dams and feature more “nature-like” fish passage.

Some 35 people attended the meeting, mostly stakeholders in the process, such as officials from Sappi, the city of Westbrook, and organizations like Friends of the Presumpscot River.

After a series of hearings in 2009, state regulations required Sappi to install fish passage at its Cumberland Mills dam. Sappi’s licenses through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which will now require passage on the upstream dams, were contingent on fish passage at Cumberland Mills.

In 2013, Sappi completed its $4.8 million Cumberland Mills fishway project, which now allows river herring, shad and other types of fish to pass up the Presumpscot River for the first time in more than 150 years.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission set a deadline for fish passage at Saccarappa for May 2015, and Sappi originally sought to decommission the dams and install a fish ladder.

However, this spring, an agreement was reached among all stakeholders to ask the commission to delay the deadline until May 2017 for the purpose of studying the removal of the dams and possible recreational opportunities. The request was approved.

“All the groups have agreed to work open, jointly, and collaboratively to look at alternatives for the site,” Stemm said.

The agreement was seen as a major step forward for the project, and a sign that Westbrook could create recreational and other opportunities. However, now the clock is ticking.

“This creates a historic opportunity,” said Bill Baker, Westbrook’s assistant city administrator for business and community relations. Baker was a key figure in negotiating the agreement between all parties. “This current investigation will lead us to a new concept that we hope all of the parties find acceptable.”

Baker said nature-like fish passage is the primary goal of the various interested organizations, while compatible recreation is the city’s goal. For Sappi, he said, it’s to comply with their regulatory obligations at a “reasonable cost.”

A few in the audience said they were concerned that if all parties don’t agree, nothing would be completed in time.

“All of us here, we want to make this site something we can all feel good about,” Stemm said.

Stemm added that the company hopes the design process will be complete within six to eight months. Once completed, Sappi submits the final plan to federal regulators for approval.

“We fully intend to meet that fish passage schedule,” he said.

An expanded story will appear in next week’s American Journal.