Why were 1,200 dams removed in the United States?
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In the United States, nearly 1,200 dams, large and small, were removed during the 20 years from 1999 to 2019. The environment is behind the fact that dams, which play an important role, are being reviewed, such as protecting people from floods caused by flooding of rivers and producing clean energy that does not emit carbon dioxide or harmful substances at the attached hydroelectric power plant. There was a reason to take good care of it.
How Removing One Maine Dam 20 Years Ago Changed Everything • The Revelator
https://therevelator.org/edwards-dam-removal/
20 Years Ago, Edwards Dam Removal Sparked a Movement for Free-flowing Rivers
https://www.nrcm.org/maine-environmental-news/20-years-ago-edwards-dam-removal-sparked-movement-free-flowing-rivers/
A Brief History of Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River
https://www.nrcm.org/programs/waters/kennebec-restoration/history-edwards-dam/
Once on the Kennebec River in Maine, USA, there was a historic Edwards Dam built in 1837, which was removed on July 1, 1999. On the day of the removal, the Kennebec River was crowded with 1,000 spectators, including locals and the governor of Maine, as well as government officials such as Secretary General Terry Garcia of the Ministry of Commerce, and work machines destroyed the dam. I watched the river overflowing.
The road to the decision to remove Edwards Dam was by no means flat. In 1989, when the removal plan came up, the dam owner, Edwards Manufacturing, was planning an expansion work to triple the amount of power generated by the hydroelectric power generation facility, and was strongly opposed to the removal plan. .. Negotiations between the Kennebec Union, which was formed by the river restoration movement group American Rivers and fishermen, and the local city of Augusta, which is Edwards Manufacturing and co-rights, have been difficult, and it has taken more than five years to reach an agreement. It took.
There was also a deep-rooted opinion that the dam should be kept alive due to the high cost of removal, the risk of riverbank erosion and increased flooding in downstream areas. Not a few local citizens had mixed feelings about the dam removal plan, which has been the infrastructure that has supported the local industry for 160 years and has been popular as part of the city's landscape. That thing.
Nevertheless, the removal of Edwards Dam was carried out because of the strong will of river restoration activists and fishermen to restore the Kennebec River ecosystem. Before the dam was built, the city of Augusta caught as many as 500 salmon each season, but by 1850 after construction it had dropped to five, effectively destroying Augusta's fishing industry. Also, in the lower reaches of the Kennebec River, the annual catch of sturgeon, which was 320,000 pounds (about 145 tons), decreased to 12,000 pounds (about 5 tons) annually in 1880.
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In a paper on Edwards Dam, Professor Jeff Crane of the University of St. Martin said, 'The Kennebec River, which raised countless fish such as herring, herring, striped bass, Atlantic salmon, and sturgeon, and supported ecosystems such as kawauso and bald eagles. , In exchange for the economic development of Maine, it has become a drainage system for the factory. ' The water treatment facility, which was built with an investment of 100 million dollars (about 10.6 billion yen), has significantly improved the water quality of the Kennebec River, but it has not regained its former appearance as a treasure trove of ecosystems.
However, this situation changed completely with the removal of the dam. Within a year of the removal work, sturgeons returned to the Kennebec River, and seals that followed herring and traced up the river 40 miles (about 65 km) from the sea began to be observed. Within a few more years, the water quality of the Kennebec River improved dramatically and the ecosystem, including animals such as bald eagles, otters and bears, was almost completely restored.
Fish and animals are not the only ones who have benefited from the rich flow. Parks and sidewalks have been built along the Kennebec River, providing a place for Augusta citizens to interact and relax. 'I was a child in the suburbs of Augusta, but the Kennebec River was neither a place to live nor a place to play,' said Brian Graber, director of the American Rivers. It's crowded with people who bring canoes and kayaks and have a good time. '
The Kennebec River is crowded with leisure travelers.
by Ken Curtis
The Edwards Dam case has become a model case for activities to restore the river environment, and nearly 1,200 dams have been removed since then.
A map showing the location of dams removed in the United States between 1912 and 2018.
'I'm not going to destroy dams all over the United States. There are still more than 90,000 dams across the United States, many of which play an important role, but removing them is what drives the river,' Graber said. It's the only way to revive the dam most quickly and efficiently, 'he said, saying that the benefits of removing the dam are sometimes greater than the value that the dam itself brings.
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