Tribes celebrate the end of the largest dam removal project in US history

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By HALLIE GOLDEN
Updated 1:43 PM CDT, October 2, 2024

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed Wednesday, marking a major victory for tribes in the region who fought for decades to free hundreds of miles of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border.

Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, local tribes showcased the environmental devastation due to the four towering hydroelectric dams, especially to salmon, which are are culturally and spiritually significant to tribes in the region. The dams cut salmon off from their historic habitat and caused them to die in alarming numbers because of bad water-quality conditions.

Without the tribes’ work “to point out the damage that these dams were doing, not only to the environment, but to the social and cultural fabric of these tribal nations, there would be no dam removal,” said Mark Bransom, chief executive of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the nonprofit entity created to oversee the project.

Power company PacifiCorp built the dams to generate electricity between 1918 and 1962. But the structures halted the natural flow of the waterway that was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast. They disrupted the lifecycle of the region’s salmon, which spend most of their life in the Pacific Ocean but return to the chilly mountain streams to lay eggs.




Read more: https://apnews.com/article/klamath-dam-removal-completed-tribes-435b955f5bfdeaca82de66bfc6551ba1

[PatrickforB]

1. Very good for the salmon. We have lost so much biodiversity. Still, I wonder

what plan was implemented by the states and the utility companies to make up the loss of hydroelectric power.

And you know, if you think this through, we do tend to praise hydroelectric power as a safe and renewable resource, but if the salmon were dying in high numbers, then it is not really that safe and renewable, is it?

Lately, I keep thinking about Nikola Tesla and his electromagnetic theories. Do you know that he built that 'Tesla' coil with the intent to harness the earth's electromagnetic field so unlimited electric power could be transmitted through the air, just like we do now with wireless communications at no cost - enough for everyone.

Unfortunately, the parasitical orc-like monkey creatures that inhabit the world of finance just couldn't have that because then they would not be able to profit off our collective need.

I do not know if you have heard this, but when Tesla died in the '40s, William Trump, Donald's uncle, who taught at MIT was dispatched by the US government to review the materials in the eight giant chests full of papers Tesla had. Trump looked over the materials, said, "There's nothing to see here, folks!" and viola! The chests disappeared no one knows where.

I always imagine a huge government warehouse filled with crates, much like the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

When will we as a species grow up enough to get rid of our 'me, me, me' attitude of rugged individualism that Wall Street has so carefully cultivated in us, and enter into a more collective awareness from which we plan forward for the species as a whole as well as all other life on the planet?

Oh, I know I'm a shameless idealist, but the truth is you can but shake your head when you contemplate what this earth could be in the face of what it actually is.

[cstanleytech]

3. In comparison to other options such as coal, oil and natural gas it is overall very environmentally friendly.

[hunter]

10. Natural gas is the energy source that will end the world as we know it...

... precisely because people wrongfully believe it is "environmentally friendly" and also because our wind and solar follies are not economically viable without it.

[cstanleytech]

11. I'm leaning towards the impact of our dumping to much pollution into our rivers thus killing the plankton in the oceans.

[Brother Buzz]

4. Restoration is going gangbusters, starting five years ago - Totally planned out

[moniss]

5. In some more industrial areas

of the country dam removal gets the added feature of having to deal with the buildup behind the dam of silt that has high concentrations of toxic materials. Removal can be done for those dams but with much more in planning/costs etc. and if the job screws up you can have have tons of this toxic stew moving even further downstream.

[Martin68]

7. Sediment and toxic buildup behind dams are certainly issues to consider, but the harm done by dams is

also serious. A solution needs to consider both sides of the question.

[hunter]

9. There's no "both sides" when dealing with dams and toxic dam sediments.

No dam has a unlimited lifetime. Eventually these toxic sediments will have to be isolated. If we don't do it now we're simply leaving the task to future generations.

The worst possible thing that happens is that these future generations lose the industrial capacity to safely remove dams, or even maintain them, and millions of people die whenever dams fail.

Removing dams from natural waterways and isolating any toxic sediments they've impounded is always the environmentally and socially responsible thing to do.

[moniss]

12. Most certainly and in the old areas east of the Mississippi there are many old dams on smaller waterways

that states just let go because they are kind of "out of sight out of mind" and the sediment/toxic concentrations behind them keep building. I live in an area that had such a small dam and pond/park for well over a century. The pond is so silted in that the water depth is usually only a few inches at best. But all of the old residents and their kid remember skating in the winter and so nobody wants to move forward with dealing with the problems. Unfortunately it is within a 1/4 mile or so of Lake Michigan and it does drain to it. Over the many decades this river flowed through most of the industrial areas and the silt is very high for lead, cadmium etc. as well as other nasty things like PCB's. There is no life in the pond it is really just a sad situation. The old industrial plants that would be on the hook for environmental issues still hold much local political influence.

Most people don't know that historically all around the Great Lakes where there were high enough bluffs in the industrial areas the communities built what were called "slash dumps". These were just basically an excavation like a gouged out ditch all the way from ground level angling down into the lake. Factories, residences and stores would just back up to the ditch and dump their trash etc. Nobody kept track of anything or who was dumping what. Whatever could rot or wash away into the lake did and when the dump got full enough they would cover it with dirt and make another one in a new location.

So over the years every now and then old chemical barrels and other stuff will rust out and the contents will work their way through the dirt and people see the stuff coming out of the face of the bluff and into the water. Old paint, dyes etc. were very often dumped in barrels. Sometimes people would find "side roads" to dump stuff from tankers into the ditches in the wee hours of darkness. It was a different time for sure. People who aren't from around here will be driving with somebody who has been here all their life and the "out-of-towner's" will ask how come this or that whole big area is just wide open nothing with no development. The old-timers just explain that those areas had lots of stuff dumped over the many years and nobody wants to "acknowledge and deal with it." So it's like whistling past the graveyard. Sometimes people do excavations for swimming pools, commercial development etc. in the metro area and get a "surprise".

[Martin68]

6. Good news for the tribes, good news for the environment.

[Bayard]

8. Indigenous people have always revered Mother Earth,

And appreciated the bounty she provides. Destruction of the earth is very offensive, along with cutting off a major food source.

Removing the dam is a very good thing.