Mt Holyoke – Environmental Leadership Series INTENT: to create a series that educates students (across the disciplinary spectrum) about important environmental issues, but that also has an aspirational/mentoring quality to it 11/13/07 Speaker: Laura Wildman Associate Director River Science American Rivers Dam Removal: A History of Decision Points Abstract: The issue of dam removal is not as new and radical as some today might suspect. The roots of the current controversy surrounding the removal of dams extend deep into our past, a past speckled with battles waged by local townsfolk to stop the construction of a particular dam. Over time, our perspectives have changed, as dams have become a familiar part of our landscape. Now, it seems, it is the dam and not the free flowing river that people remember and to which they attach sentimental value. In the end any battle to remove a dam today or in the future is just a continuation of a discussion initiated when the dam was first proposed. We are but one discussion in a long series of decision points regarding the management of the rivers the continued need for specific dams. What decision we make now, through carefully balancing today’s issues, will directly effect the battles or need for battles in the future. Along with my own history of decision points that lead me here. 20 minute talk Dam Removal: A History of Decision Points Laura Wildman, PE Director of River Science American Rivers Northeast Field Office Glastonbury, CT www.americanrivers.org 860-652-9911 Earliest Maps of New England American Indian River Use Current Fish Trap The Fair Lawn/Paterson Fish Weir, NJ Indians Fishing Celilo Falls Columbia River Gorge 1937 American Indian River Names Emphasizing fishing, falls or type of flow Penobscot: “the rocky part”, the “descending ledge place” or a place "where the white rocks are" Presumpscot: the “river of many falls.” Androscoggin: "the high fish place“ Merrimac: "swift stream" Naugatuck: "lone tree by the fishing place" Cobbosseecontee: “the place where sturgeon abound” Neversink: “continuously flowing” or “mad river” or “place of big rock”; also name of town submerged by the Neversink Reservoir Lower Shannock Falls Dam Project, RI Early Colonial River Use The Dam Building Era Cuddebackville Dam - Neversink Billington Street Dam Billerica Dam Middlesex Canal Mill – Mechanical Power Navigation Canals Tingue Dam Edwards Dam Industrial Hydroelectric Flood Control/Water Supply History of Decision Points "…mere Shad, armed only with innocence and a just cause…I for one am with thee, and who knows what may avail a crow- bar against that Billerica dam?" Henry David Thoreau 1839 "For generations, a painful and expensive controversy has existed in relation to [the Billerica Billerica Dam Dam], and if [not removed now], Concord River, MA the children and children's children of these parties will be 1710 – Constructed cursed with strife and contention". 1711 – 1st Law Suit 1722 – Dam Removed – Rebuilt – Henry French pleads with the Removed by Force - Rebuilt Massachusetts Legislature, 1861 1798 – Law Suit 1860 – Law Suit 2003 – Still Discussing the dam's fate. Phoenix Pioneer 1868-1955 Arizona Dam Engineer 1898-1965 1893 on the first survey of the Chief designer & construction Roosevelt Dam site supervisor on the Salt River Project “Rolly is a fella you can ride Fought Arizona’s Colorado flow the river with” battle against California Engineer Specializing Ex-Director Pomperaug in Dam Removal & River Watershed Coalition Fish passage And avid fly fisherman for American Rivers My Own History of Decision Points • Kid in a basket pack before I could walk • University of Vermont – Switched from Mechanical to Civil Engineering • First Job – Disillusioned Engineer • Second Job – 1st River & Fish Project • Consulting Engineer – Working only on River Restoration • American Rivers – Dam Removal Expert & Director of River Science •Yale – Masters in Environmental Management • Teaching at Yale & Univ. of Wisconsin • Involvement in National Scale Efforts to Implement Change (ASCE/EWRI, AFS, ASDSO, Aspen Institute, press, lecturing) • Involved in >100 Dam Removal Efforts Hoping to leave Free Flowing River at Dynamic Equilibrium Spawning Habitat Reservoir Downstream - Decreased Water Quality (decreased circulation) - Traps Sediment - Water Quality is Reduced - Pollutants Accumulate (concentrate) -Traps Debris - Altered Flow Regime - Oxygen Depletion (may become anoxic) - Blocks Nutrient Transport - Temperatures modified - Reservoir Stratifies(loss of turbulent flow) - Algae Blooms - Sediment Starved - Increased Temperatures - Blocks Fish Passage - Riverbed Degrades Increased - Nutrient Starved Evaporation Debris Jam epilimnion metalimnion DAM! hypolimnion Habitat/Substrate Impounded Buried by Sediment Sediment Dam Original Bed Profile CONNECTIVITY OF A RIVER Normal Flow LATERAL LINEAR GROUNDWATER INTERFACE SLIDE MODIFIED FROM: LUTHER AADLAND, MN DNR CONNECTIVITY OF A RIVER Flood Flow LATERAL EXPANSION SLIDE MODIFIED FROM: FLOODPLAIN LUTHER AADLAND, MN DNR IMPACTING OUR RIVERS Disruption of SLIDE MODIFIED FROM: Transport LUTHER AADLAND, MN DNR Processes Habitat National Inventory of Dams Fragmentation • 78,747 Dams >25 ft w/ 15ac-ft capacity or >6ft w/ 50ac-ft capacity at a very • ~99,000 Dams regulated by states & in the USFWS Barrier Database large scale! • Several Million Dams Status Report on the Nation’s Floodplain Management Activity, 1989 (includes an estimated 2.5 million NRCS dams built as of 1977) Hazard Classifications • High Hazard • Significant Hazard • Low Hazard Slide source: modified from Michael Grounds ASDOS 2006 presentation on Dams Safety Performance Measures and NID CULVERTS STREAM PAVING LEVEES & FLOODWALLS Pequonnock River Concrete Apron, CT Jacob’s Pond Culvert, MA Trout Brook, CT OVER-ALLOCATION Ipswich River runs dry while sprinklers are run in the rain , MA HYDRAULIC BARRIERS EXCESSIVE SEDIMENT TIDE GATES BRIDGE APRONS Habitat Number of Barriers? Fragmentation • Several Billion? No one Knows! at a very • All Rivers Now Fragmented by Barriers large scale! Slide source: modified from Michael Grounds ASDOS 2006 presentation on Dams Safety Performance Measures and NID Children's Children Cursed with Strife and Contention Winnemem Wintu Tribe war dance to protest Shasta Dam Another Decision Point: The Balancing Act REMOVE KEEP DAM DAM Applied Ecology Reseach Institute Hadley Elementary School Kennebec Coalition Eco.-Justice Working Group National Council of Chu Trout Unlimited - New York Council Audubon Society of Connecticut Hands Across the River Coalition Low Impact Hydropower Institute Ellenville HS Tug Hill Commission Audubon Society of Connecticut (Greenwich) Henry Kendall Foundation MA Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Energy Times Magazine Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust Blackledge River Watershed Committee high school of commerce Maine Audubon Society Environmental Advocates U.S. Army Corps of Engineers branford river project Hoosic River Watershed Association Maine Coast Heritage Trust Environmental Advocates of New York University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UC Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems Housatonic River Restoration Maine League of Conservation Voters Environmental Advocates of New York USDA Columbia Canoe Club Housatonic River Restoration Maine Rivers Environmental Background Information Center Water Keeper Alliance Community Unity Housatonic River Walk Maine Rivers Friends of the Buffalo River Waterfront Corridor Initiative-City of Buffalo Connecticut Bass Chapter Federation Housatonic Valley Association Maine Rivers Friends of the Hudson Waterkeeper Alliance Connecticut Fly Fisherman's Association Ipswich River Watershed AssociationNortheastMaine Rivers PartnersFriends of Wertheim Waterkeeper Alliance Connecticut Forest and Park Association Jones River Watershed Association Marine Law Institute University of Maine School O Glynwood Center Watershed Agricultural Council Connecticut River Assembly Lampson Brook Watershed Association Natural Resources Council of Maine Great Lakes United Wegman's Food Markets Connecticut River Gateway Commission League of Environmental Voters Natural Resources Council of Maine Great Lakes United West Branch Conservation Association Connecticut River Salmon Association MA Dem Natural Resources Council of Maine Great Lakes United Westchester Land Trust Connecticut River Watch Program MA Department of Environmental Protection Natural Resources Council of Maine Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Westchester Rivers Connecticut Waterfowl Association MA Dept Env Protection Pemaquid Watershed Association Group for the South Fork Western New York Land Conservancy Connecticut-Rhode Island Coastal Fly Fishers MA Riverways Programs Penobscot River Restoration Project Hackensack Riverkeeper, Inc. White Water Challengers Farmington River Anglers Association Mass. Watershed Inititiative Pleasant River Association Harlem River Conservancy Winnakee Land Trust Farmington River Club Inc. Massachusettes Audubon Society Presumpscot River Watch Hudson River Environmental Society Zoar Valley Paddling Club Farmington River Watershed Association Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissi Trout Unlimited - Maine Council Hudson River Foundation Zoar Valley Paddling Club FOLK-Legacy Records Inc. Massachusetts Audubon Society University of Maine Hudson River Greenway Communities Council American Fisheries Society -- Southern New England Friends of the Connecticut River Massachusetts Bass Anglers Sportsman Society USFWS