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Making Hydropower Safer For Rivers
Algae bloom behind Klamath River dam
James Norman, flight by Lighthawk
A river without dams will always be healthier than the same river with dams. So there’s been a lot of excitement lately as more than 1,000 old, obsolete dams have been removed in the U.S. to date.
A river will always healthier when it is free-flowing than it would be if it were dammed for hydropower or other uses. Without question, dams damage rivers. So we take great pride in knowing that more than 1,000 harmful, obsolete dams have been removed in the U.S. to date.
But what about the dams that still serve a purpose?
If we woke up tomorrow to discover that every dam in the country had vanished overnight, our rivers would be much healthier. But we've also grown to depend on dams to help us light our houses, irrigate crops, and supply our cities with water.
Hydropower dams are an important source of energy, but they can still harm rivers. The electric utilities and merchant generators who profit from these hydroelectric dams have a clear responsibility to reduce this harm. For more than 20 years, American Rivers and its partner groups in the Hydropower Reform Coalition have been working with dam owners to get them to modernize their working hydropower dams, improving their environmental performance and efficiency.
We’re proud of this success: together, we have supported the continued long-term operation of more than 16,000 MW of hydropower at dams where owners have made changes to benefit fisheries, watershed lands, water quality, and recreation. These are simple, common sense changes.
A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission study found that these improvements, on average, resulted in a mere 1.6% reduction in power generation. That’s a small price to pay for healthy rivers.
More Information About Making Hydropower Safe For Rivers
- Find out how we're restoring rivers that have been harmed by hydropower dams.
- Learn more about whether Hydropower is "clean."
- Hydropower dams in an era of Climate Change.
- Dam Effects: Interactive site showing how dams block and change rivers.
Other ResourcesLearn more about the Hydropower Reform Coalition. Discover American Rivers' river restoration efforts. Find out 10 Ways Dams Damage Rivers. |
Blog Posts: Making Hydropower Safer for RiversTwo Cheers For The Hooch! (05/22/12) Why I Love The Chattahoochee River (05/22/12) Paddling Up Support For The Green River (05/21/12) |
