August 1998
Those who think some of our rivers are a dammed shame argue for the structures to come down.
Welcome to the contentious new world of dam removal. As development of natural resources is weighed against environmental protection, dams can no longer be taken for granted. North Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin already have pulled down a number. But a complex national debate about safety, economic and environmental issues goes on. One-quarter of the nation's dams are 50 years old, and many need repair. Dams have contributed to the extinction of 106 native salmon and trout stocks in four Western states, despite hatching programs, fish passage, and barging. Yet, dams also provide nearly half of the nation's renewable energy — and their reservoirs are often popular recreation spots.
On 1 July 1999, the Edwards Dam was breached in Augusta, Maine, allowing the Kennebec River to run free for the first time in 162 years. This marks the first time The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has denied an application to re-license an operating dam.
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[ Sierra Club Magazine May / June 1998 ]
Although large federal dams such as those on the Columbia aren't regulated by FERC, the utility of some of them is also being questioned. In the Columbia River basin, where salmon-recovery efforts have failed, policy makers are debating breaching dams on the Snake River for the first time. The river's salmon must contend with eight hydropower dams as they head downstream; along the way, up to 99 percent of smolts perish.
Lending credence to a proposal championed by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, the editorial board of the Idaho Statesman in Boise concluded last year that the Northwest would realize a net economic benefit of $183 million a year by unplugging four dams on the lower Snake. But no one expects this effort to be as easy as toppling a 15-foot-high dam in Maine: while they're marginal contributors to the Northwest's power grid, the four Snake River dams enable barges to reach Lewiston, Idaho, 400 miles from the sea.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and
National Marine Fisheries Service are expected to finish reviews of the proposal in late 1999.
Dams must now prove their worth against that of healthy rivers and fisheries—and they aren't measuring up. While building dams has always demonstrated our ability to control nature, dismantling them represents our capacity to live in harmony with it.—
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