#river dams

[wachinyeya]

'Anything that can be built can be taken down': The largest dam removal in US history is complete – what happens next?

The Klamath River is free of four huge dams for the first time in generations. But for the Yurok tribe, the river's restoration is only just

[rjzimmerman]

River dam removal

Excerpt from the story from The Revelator, and here’s the link.

US dams removed, 1916-2017

Many of these have been small dams, but there have also been high-profile projects, like the two Elwha River dams that were the largest dam-removal project so far in the world.

The removal of the 125-foot-tall Condit Dam in 2011 on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia River in Washington, was a big step in aiding threatened salmon and steelhead. The Condit was removed because adding modern requirements for fish proved to be uneconomical — it was cheaper to remove the dam than build fish passage.

Overall there's been a shift in public thinking about dams over the past two decades. "It's not just something that conservationists and environmentalists are advocating for anymore," says Amy Souers Kober, communications director at American Rivers. "Dam removal also makes sense for economic reasons and public safety in a lot of cases."

That includes Bloede Dam on the Patapsco River in Maryland, where nine people have drowned, she says. Efforts to remove the dam there began in September.

There are also a number of big projects on the horizon, including on the Middle Fork Nooksack River, which Kober says is the number-one salmon-recovery project on the Puget Sound that conservationists hope will help struggling Southern Resident killer whales.

And all eyes are on the Klamath River as plans come together to remove four dams in 2021 in what would become the largest dam-removal and river-restoration project in the world.

Dam-removal proponents don't think we need to take out all of our dams, and of course we couldn't. The United States has more than 90,000 dams, and many still serve crucial functions. But where dams have been removed, the past two decades have shown the environmental results are unparalleled.

[uidahodigital]

Whatever your plans, wherever you may go, travel safely and have a fun Spring Break, Vandals!

From the Dworshak Dam Collection.

[wachinyeya]

Record number of river barriers removed across Europe in 2023

Removal of nearly 500 barriers last year will help restore disturbed waterways to their natural state, says Dam Removal Europe

[rjzimmerman]

How Removing One Maine Dam 20 Years Ago Changed Everything

The removal of the Edwards Dam on Maine’s Kennebec River helped river conservationists reimagine what’s possible.

Excerpt from this The Revelator/EcoWatch article:

More than 1,000 people lined the banks of the Kennebec River in Augusta, Maine, on July 1, 1999. They were there to witness a rebirth.

The ringing of a bell signaled a backhoe on the opposite bank to dig into a retaining wall. Water trickled, then gushed. The crowd erupted in cheers as the Edwards Dam, which had stretched 900 feet across the river, was breached. Soon the whole dam would be removed.

The Kennebec hadn't run free here since 1837.

Those who advocated for the dam's removal promised that devastated fisheries would return, and the city of Augusta would benefit from new recreational opportunities and a revitalization of the riverfront.

They were right. But it wasn't just Augusta where change was felt.

The removal of Edwards Dam became a pivotal moment in the history of the environmental movement and river restoration in the United States. It was the first functioning hydroelectric dam to be removed — and the first time the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ever voted, against the wishes of a dam owner, not to relicense a dam.

But most importantly the demolition signaled a shift in thinking about how we balance environmental and economic interests — and that had a ripple effect.

"It was the first big dam that came out that demonstrated to the country that our rivers had other values beyond industrial use," says John Burrows, director of New England Programs for the Atlantic Salmon Federation, which was a key player in the dam-removal effort. "It helped folks recognize that our rivers, which we've not taken good care of for several hundred years, could be a different asset for communities. And for society."

[quotesfromall]

Hydroelectric power generation is by far the most efficient method of large scale electric power generation.

Hydroelectric Power Generation

[rjzimmerman]