Archive for the 'dam removal' Category

Elwha sediment not just mud, it’s nourishment

Published on 04/30/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, dam removal and hydrology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: Seattle times

“The sediment loads in the Elwha River are spiking because the reservoir behind former Elwha Dam is now completely gone. That means the settling of fines that used to occur in the lake is no longer happening so all that material is pouring into the river, and heading on down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It’s a dramatic sight.

“The distinct line is caused by the difference in density between the fresh water of the Elwha and the salt water of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The heavy sediment loading is coming primarily from the area that used to be Elwha Dam. In this photo the Elwha River, right, meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The plume is flowing east with the tide — up, in this photograph, as Roorda flies north.

“And while the amount of sediment is large — about 50 times normal levels for the Elwha — don’t call it mud. Sediment is a single word for a whole range of material that the river has been depositing behind the two dams for the past 100 years: rocks, gravel, cobble, sand, silt, and clay. About 40 percent of that material is expected to eventually make its way out to sea.

“Restarting the river’s natural transport capacity is one of the most important aspects of Elwha River recovery. Big mountain rivers like the Elwha eat a steady diet of wood and rocks and sand and gravel, moving the material with the energy of their perpetual flow down gradient to the sea. Wood and sediment rebuild the natural structure and complexity of the riverbed: meanders, side channels, gravel bars, pools and riffles. A big mountain river like the Elwha naturally transports a fantastic amount of material — but it’s all been stuck up behind the dams, some 24 million cubic yards worth. Well now with the dams coming out — and Elwha Dam already completely gone — that material is on the move.”

Read more: Seattle times

sammykayed

Salmon revival in sight as Elwha River dams fall in U.S. Northwest

Published on 04/29/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, dam removal, dams, displacement of people, hydrology, hydropower, policy, riparian zone, rivers and species extinction. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.reuters.com

“The two dams, about 80 miles northwest of Seattle, blocked migratory routes of salmon and steelhead trout to some 70 miles of tributary habitat, in the process robbing Native Americans of income by halting a treaty-guaranteed reservation fishery.

The river teemed with thrashing pink salmon before the Elwha Dam was built to generate electricity for the nearby mill town of Port Angeles, with a current population of around 19,000, and later, to a naval shipyard in Bremerton, about 80 miles away.

The Elwha Dam’s removal, completed in late March, was hailed by Governor Christine Gregoire as a significant environmental milestone that “shows what happens, when against many odds, a river is restored to its natural beauty.”

Supporters of the dam’s destruction say the benefits to the environment of tearing it down outweigh the loss of its aging power-generating station.

The destruction of the Glines should be finished in about a year to 18 months, ending the biggest dam demolition in U.S. history.

The removal of the two dams – ordered by a 1992 law signed by then-President George H.W. Bush – is aimed at restoring the natural habitat of more than 300,000 salmon. Economic and environmental impact analyses delayed the project’s start.”

Read more: Reuters

lily victoria

Landslide Risk at Reservoir Cited in China

Published on 04/19/2012 in dam removal, dams, displacement of people, erosion and floods. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“A growing threat of landslides on ground surrounding the massive Three Gorges Dam reservoir could force the government to relocate 100,000 more residents of the area, from which 46,000 were moved earlier, an expert with China’s land and resources ministry said this week.

“The dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project, has been a target of criticism by environmentalists and some geologists since before the reservoir began to inundate a long stretch of the Yangtze River, long regarded as one of the world’s scenic wonders, in 2003. A massive landslide occurred that year, followed by others, but only in 2007 did the government admit that the rising waters were causing instability and that a catastrophe could occur unless preventive steps were taken.

“Officials have recorded 430 landslides and nearly 2,900 smaller geological incidents along the lakeshore, and 5,386 other potentially dangerous sites are being monitored, Mr. Liu said.

“The government relocated 1.4 million people to build the dam and reservoir, which is comparatively narrow but longer than Lake Superior in North America. The latest proposed relocation would affect residents along hundreds of miles of twisting lakeshore from Jiangjin, in the Chongqing municipality, to the dam’s location at Yichang, in Hubei Province.”

Read More: nytimes

Chippie Kislik

Wasting the Wastewater

Published on 01/24/2012 in contaminated water, dam removal, graywater and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Wastewater treated with chlorine at a plant in Fort Worth. While the reuse of such water in industry and on golf courses has become familiar, scientists say that such recycling water will also be crucial to the drinking supply someday.

Retrieved from: NY Times

“Each day, American municipalities discharge enough treated wastewater into natural sources to fill Lake Champlain within six months. Growing pressure on water supplies and calls for updating the ancient subterranean piping infrastructure have brought new scrutiny to this step in the treatment process, which is labeled wasteful and unnecessary by a spectrum of voices.

“As the world enters the 21st century, the human community finds itself searching for new paradigms for water supply and management,” says a report released this month by the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Research Council, a division of the National Academy of Sciences. The report investigates the potential for establishing a more resilient national water supply through the direct recycling of municipal wastewater.

“Law and practice have always been that water goes back into a river or into groundwater or the ocean before it returns for further treatment,” said Brent Haddad, founder and director of the Center for integrated water research at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a member of the committee that wrote the report. The critical question, he said, is “whether that natural stage of treatment is actually an efficient stage of treatment.”

“Sixteen experts representing industry, government, and research fields in the social sciences and hard sciences collaborated over three years to produce the study, examining everything from pathogenic risks to public attitudes about reuse.

“The committee ultimately concluded that the reuse of municipal wastewater can safely and significantly increase the nation’s available water resources – potable and non-potable – without intermediate discharge into the natural environment. “The technology for treating wastewater is good enough that we don’t need that intervention,” Dr. Haddad said.”

Read more: NY Times

sammykayed

Klamath Dams: Surcharge Rolled Out

Published on 01/19/2012 in dam removal, dams, management, policy, rivers, solutions and outreach and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Iron Gate Dam. Retrieved from: www.everythingwarrenbuffet.com

“As of Jan. 10, Pacific Power customers in Northern California will begin seeing the company’s new dam removal surcharge on their bills, a press release from the utility company announced.
“The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) notified the company on Jan. 3 that the trust accounts to receive the Klamath dam removal surcharge proceeds from Pacific Power’s approximately 45,000 customers in Northern California have been established,” the release began.
The company said it began applying the surcharge to bills on Jan. 10. The charge will be prorated during the first billing cycle, which means that if a customer’s billing cycle closes on Jan. 15, they will be charged for a five-day portion of the approximately 2-percent increase. The company said the average residential customer will see an increase of about $1.61 monthly.
The surcharge is to cover PacifiCorp’s capped share of the total cost of dam removal under the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA), which the company signed with more than 40 environmental, agricultural and tribal organizations in February 2010.
The agreement would lead to the removal of four of the company’s dams on the upper Klamath River in 2020. Three of the dams are in Siskiyou County (Iron Gate, Copco I and Copco II), where the Board of Supervisors has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the action. One dam – J.C. Boyle – is in Klamath County, Ore.
Under the KHSA, PacifiCorp’s customers will cover the first $200 million of dam removal costs through collection of the surcharge. Any costs over $200 million would be covered by the state of California, up to an additional $250 million. The current estimate of the likely cost, according to the Department of the Interior, is approximately $297 million.”

Read more: Siskiyoudaily.com

lily victoria

Rivers must flow: The case against big dams

Published on 01/11/2012 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, dam removal, dams, deforestation, displacement of people, greenwashing, hydrology, hydropower, management, peak water, policy, riparian zone, rivers, species extinction, water diversions, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.com

“More than 50,000 large dams now choke about two-thirds of the world’s largest rivers. The consequences of this massive engineering programme have been devastating. Large dams have wiped out species; flooded huge areas of wetlands, forests and farmlands; displaced tens of millions of people, and affected close to half a billion people living downstream.

Large dams hold back not just water, but silt and nutrients that replenish farmlands and build protective wetlands and beaches. Dams change the very riverness of our waterways, in ways we can’t always see, but that the earth can certainly feel.

Of all the complex and interconnected environmental disruptions that dams inflict on the landscape, the most obvious is the permanent inundation of forests, wetlands and wildlife. Reservoirs have flooded vast areas - at last count, the world’s dams had flooded an area bigger than the United Kingdom.

Equally important is the quality of these lost lands: river and floodplain habitats are some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. Plants and animals that are closely adapted to valley habitats often cannot survive along the edge of a reservoir.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

 

lily victoria

Historic Dam Removal

Published on 10/31/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, dam removal, dams, rivers and solutions and outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Elwha Dam. Retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“For 98 years, the 125-foot high Condit Dam in southeastern Washington State held back the White Salmon River, creating a serene lake, but choking off the waterway to salmon. Wednesday, in an historic effort, the dam was dramatically breached, and ecologists hope the increased flow of water will restore the waterway to fish and other aquatic organisms, as well as the birds and mammals that rely on them.

The dam removal comes just weeks after dismantling began on the Elwha Dama few hours to the north. Demolition of the Condit occured with a bang, compared to the virtual whimper of the Elwha. At that site, downstream from Olympic National Park, engineers are dismantling the two dams slowly, in a process that’s expected to take three years. They say a quicker removal would endanger the area due to the higher amount of silt in the lake.

Silt is still readily apparent in the dramatic video above, both in the darkly colored water rushing from underneath the conrete and in the fast-emptying lake.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

lily victoria

Learning from Elwha: Mistakes of the Past are Lessons for the Future

Published on 09/21/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, dam removal, dams, hydrology and hydropower. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

“This weekend was a big milestone for the environment. The Department of the Interior officially began the nation’s largest river restoration project on the Elwha River in Washington’s Olympic National Park with the removal of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams. When the dams on the Elwha River were created 100 years ago, its builders cut corners by neither building fish passages nor securing the dams to bedrock, which caused significant long term damage to the surrounding ecosystems, from the river to the estuary to the coast.

“The Elwha River Restoration Project is of great interest to active members of the conservation and fishery communities and local residents who have been advocating for the dam’s removal for many years. Not only will the dam removal provide substantial economic benefit, the environmental impact of removing it is profound. Sediment will be redistributed, waterways will be restored, and five salmon species are expected to return to their natural migration route that has been dormant since the dams were erected in 1911. The project also provides a tremendous educational opportunity for the next generation to learn from the past by providing a clear picture of how our actions impact the environment.”

Read more: Huffington Post

jenna cavelle