The Damming truth

Critical thinking paper

Elias Monastersky
Green Group

During the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, the United

States viewed large hydroelectric dams as a sign of technological
superiority. The dams were thought to be only beneficial; providing
improved navigation routes, electric power, irrigation water, and flood
control. It was thought that this clean electricity from dams would
bring new environmental and industrial opportunities. Now though, the
problems that hydroelectric dams have created are starting to show
themselves. Dams pose many serious problems to the environment.
They damage aquatic habitats and destroy fish migrations, as well as
add a considerable amount of pollution into the air and water. In
addition, large sums of money are wasted on maintaining the dams.
Private owners and local governments, which control the vast majority
of the dams in the US, must increase their efforts to destroy dams and
prevent the building of new dams because they harm aquatic life,
create pollution, and are unsafe to nearby human populations.

Dams have a very prominent part of American history: Dams

harnessed the world's major rivers and post- colonial leaders saw them
as the new temples of development, monuments to a nationalistic
vision of modernization and unlimited growth, and vigorously promoted

their construction (Stephanie Joyce). Dams were once considered to

be the best and most efficient way to provide clean renewable energy
to the public. There are currently a huge number of dams in the world.

According to Patrick McCully, campaigns director of the Berkeley,

California-based International Rivers Network, over 800,000 dams
have been constructed worldwide for drinking water, flood control,
hydropower, irrigation, navigation, and water storage (Stephanie
Joyce). This extreme amount of construction left the U.S. with
approximately 75,000 dams. Texas alone has 6,798.

Out of all these dams, only approximately 2,540 (Questions

about Removing Dams") dams actually generate power. Some may be
used to hold a reservoir and provide water to nearby towns, but many
dams stay idle. So far the general solution has been to just let the
dams stay there, as most owners dont want to put the time or money
into either bringing the dam back into working condition or removing it
(Lovett 521-522). Due to the new information that has been found
about dams, people are just now realizing the downsides of dams.

When a dam sits without maintenance for too long, then

sediment starts to build up at the base of the dam, the metal starts to
rust and the dam starts to fall apart. These dangerous ruins can cause

problems to people living nearby. This can cause floods and the mass
build-up of sediment creates dirty water as well as trapping some
dangerous toxins that would have normally traveled harmlessly out to
sea. These toxins poison the nearby aquatic habitat. Dams also destroy
the native fish migrations by providing a barrier that is impossible for
the fish to pass. Dams warm the water and lower its oxygen content,
boosting invasive species and algae blooms while blocking and killing
native aquatic life upstream and down (James Workman). The dam
then practically poisons the habitat in which it was placed by creating
toxic substances that are dangerous to all organisms.

These walls pose a serious threat to salmon and other fish that
cannot return to their breeding grounds. They block passages and can
wipe out what was once a rich thriving fish population. This loss also
affects the people that rely on the fish for food; It was a sad day for
the settlers who had grown to depend on the salmon as one of their
staple foods. But for the Indians, it was a catastrophe (Harrison).
Some Native American tribes had built their lives around the salmon
and other fish that would go back up the river to breed. The dammed
up rivers have stopped the fish from going and the Native Americans
had just lost their primary source of food.

Dams pollute the air and are not the perfect clean alternative to
coal and oil. Due to the massive amount of stagnant water, the
reservoirs of the dams have large buildups of organic material and
bacteria. This causes these dams to produce massive amounts of
methane: Dam reservoirs contribute 25% of human-caused methane
emissions (James Workman). Methane, or CH4, is a particular potent
greenhouse gas that has contributed greatly to global warming.

Dam removal is a much less costly then spending money to try

and repair and improve an old dam. Much of the time it is found that a
dam owner would actually save money in the long run by destroying
the dam instead of trying to bring the dam into line with safety and
environmental requirements ("Questions about Removing Dams").
Many dams are old and no longer work so there is little point of them
being there.

The first step to a clean future is to destroy many or all of the

unused dams and convert to other sources of power (such as wind).
This would be the most effective plan and would solve any and all
problems that dams pose. This solution has worked in the past. The
Sunbeam Dam generated power for one year on the Salmon River in
Idaho and then sat with no purpose for another twenty-three years,
acting as a dead end for the fish that migrated up the stream. Finally

after public outcry, the obsolete dam was breached and fish such as
sockeye began to repopulate the upper reaches of the Salmon River
basin("Dam Removal in Idaho"). After all of the useless dams are
gone, people can start to taper off of their need for dam power and
convert to wind and solar power. Following the destruction of the
useless dams, the rivers will be restored to their original condition.

Dams should be eliminated, but if there were no way that

destroying a dam would be possible, then a new type of dam, called
Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, is a possible alternate. Run of the
river dams eliminate all need for a reservoir and only take up half of
the river. If a dam is needed then this alternate is a good option.
Without the use of a reservoir, there is no backed up water and less
sediment with which to deal (Bureau of Reclamation). Without the need
for a reservoir, run of the river dams are a step in the right direction
and eliminate some of the environmental and safety issues that
conventional dams pose, such as flooding and methane produced from
the stagnant water. Run of the river dams do have their disadvantages
though, such as still creating some problems for fish to make it up the
stream.

Many people will argue that dams are still a relevant source of
clean energy. However, evidence shows that dams are not as clean as

people originally thought therefore; energy should be found in true

clean sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, or even switching to
energy efficient light bulbs.

Dams cause damage to aquatic habitats, destroy fish migrations,

add a considerable amount of pollution into the air and water, and
waste large sums of money on maintaining them. This can be fixed but
it needs the co-operation from the private owners and local
governments, which have the ability to help provide a clean future to
the America as a whole.