Glines Canyon Dam

Developing a Modern Paleolithic: Many dams are “relics of a bygone age”

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Removal of Glines Canyon Dam as of Oct. 4, 2011. Image: WikimediaBy Dr. John

You may be aware that removal of the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River, which began on September 17, represents the largest dam removal in American history. Earlier this year, two outdated dams no longer in use on the Twelve Mile River in South Carolina were also removed.

Regardless of your position on the environment, removal of many dams should not be a contentious issue. The article “American Waterways: Go with the flow”, published in the Oct. 1 issue of The Economist, provides pertinent data on dam removal:

  • “In this century’s first decade, 410 American dams were removed. While that is just a small portion of the more than 84,000 dams in America, the rate of removal is growing; more than twice as many dams were removed between 2000 and 2010 than in any other decade.”
  • “Some – around 2,540 – generate hydropower, but most do not.”

The Economist also notes:

Like the Twelve Mile River dams, many of them are relics of a bygone age: holdovers from the Industrial Revolution built to power mills long defunct for industries that have largely vanished from America.

The goals of dam removal include public safety (the older the dam, generally the greater the risk of failure), water recreation (fishing, rafting, etc.) and restoration of aquatic life (for example, the salmon population of the Elwha River is expected to boom from 3,000 to 400,000 following dam removal).

Undamming rivers, when possible, helps restore our natural world – remember clean air, clean water, flowing streams and rivers (OK, maybe you don’t). It also helps restore the Paleolithic resources on which we depend.