Down Go The Dams
- Decommissioning dams is becoming a regular occurrence as structures age, provide an inconsequential share of a region's power, become unsafe or too costly to repair, or as communities decide they want their rivers wild and full of fish again.
- Removing a dam does not automatically mean a long-altered ecosystem will flourish once more.
- Reality often proves far more complex and intricate than people anticipate.
- 800,000 dams worldwide, 45,000 are large
- Successes have driven much of the activity of destroying dams
- Water clarity and oxygen levels increase as flows come back and aquatic insects thrive again.
- As water moves more freely, temperature falls and cold-loving fish return.
- People, in addition to flora and fauna return to enjoy the rivers.
- Biologists have observed these benefits from Wisconsin to South Wales in Australia.
- Problems: release of sediments trapped behind a dam's walls can choke waterways, muddying the environment and wiping out insects and algae which are important food for fish.
Dams have many good benefits and some consequences. Dams can control flooding and supply water for irrigation and recreational use. The drawback is that it disturbs homes of humans and the marine organisms that call that area home. Removing dams also has pros and cons. Pros of the removal of dams include clearer water. If a dam is removed, the DO levels increase over some time. Cons from removing dams is the worry over sediment. Removing dams can release sediment that would choke waterways and mudify the water.
I feel like dams actually provide much more positive than negative. I've read that a big problem with the Three Gorges Dam is that it displaces a lot of people. If we have government give more compensation to the people displaced, it would be less impactful. Dams only really seem good in certain places where there is minimal environmental harm. You can't exactly put anywhere without looking at the changes you will make to the environment. As for dam removal, it should be in a way where there is minimal damage and keeping the land safe enough for some use.