DAM(n)! Issues in Sustainability: A Timeline of Dams in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond
Dworshak Dam, Idaho
Will Searcy
Dams, especially in the Pacific Northwest, have come under considerable scrutiny over the past couple of years. Questions about their efficiency in relation to their detriment on local ecosystems have risen and many think removing the dams is a worthy cost incurred. The history of dams and their sustainability is an interesting one, stretching back to the mid-1800s. There are cases for and against dams, but many dams have surpassed being efficient. These dams primary purposes have become either obsolete or are now being accomplished through other means. Although many dams should be taken out, some still serve a purpose and should be maintained. There is now a need for the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers to assess dams and their efficiency to determine whether not they are needed.
History
Dams in the United States go back to colonization where settlements were located on rivers that could be dammed to increase flow rates that would then result in power for mills. Once electricity was invented, dams were quickly adapted with turbines to produce energy. At one point in time, 50 percent of power in the United States was created by dams. The era of the dam started when the Reclamation Act was passed by congress in 1902. This act eventually created the Bureau of Reclamation in 1907. The purpose of the act and eventual bureau was to initiate settlement of the west through the small family farm. This was happening in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico among others. To create farms there needed to be irrigation systems in place. The Bureau of Reclamation’s job was to create dams for power and irrigation so the west could be settled. The Bureau of Reclamation is still active today and has an annual budget of $1.17 million dollars. The 1930’s marked the beginning of some of the most aggressive dam construction projects. The Hoover Dam on the Nevada Arizona border and the Cooley Dam in Washington were both started in 1931 in a try to jump start the economy during the Great Depression. At the time, these were two of the largest dams in the United States and amongst the largest dams in the world. The cost of the Hoover Dam in 1931 totaled $49 million dollars or $836 million dollars today.
The era of the dam began with the end of World War II. Between 1950 and 1970 30,000 dams were built across the United States. “Any river that wasn’t dammed was seen as wasted potential”. (DamNation) Dams were constructed at such an alarming rate, little attention was paid to the environment, sustainability or whether or not the dam itself would fulfill their purposes efficiently. Although the dam era is considered to be between 1950 and 1970, which marked the largest amount of constructed dams in United States history, the dam era did not actually end till President Bill Clinton appointed Dan Beard to head the Bureau of Reclamation. Beard proclaimed that, “the bureau (of reclamation)’s future is not in dams” and “the era of dams is over”. Then, in 1997, began the first major federal dam deconstruction of the Marie Dorian dam in Oregon.
Sustainability
The sustainability of dams is a point of contention in today’s world. Running water through a turbine is a renewable energy source but at what cost? Dams are built to accomplish five different goals: flood mitigation, power creation, irrigation, transportation and recreation. Some dams still effectively fulfill their goals but as we look closure, there are useless dams that are costing the American taxpayer millions to run every year. The Pacific Northwest can be defined by where ever you can find salmon. If this definition is true, then the area of the Pacific Northwest has decreased to nearly half its natural size due to dam construction. In 1973, congress passed the Endangered Species Act which goal is to preserve species that are close to extinction due to economic development. Dams have endangered several species of salmon due to blocking them from their native spawning grounds in the Pacific Northwest. Even with fish ladders and bridges for salmon to bypass dams, there are still salmon running their heads into the base of dams to this day. Although dams create great recreational boating areas, the static water is a detriment to aquatic life. Standing water is prone to eutrophication where algae cover the surface of water blocking sunlight and starving the water of oxygen. Dams do not only hold back water. Sediment and debris builds up behind a dam over its lifetime. No one would think that blocking this mix would be important but it is. Sediment flow in a river to the ocean is crucial in terms of storm surges. This mix of debris and sediment mitigates storm surges from the ocean.
While running water through a turbine is a sustainable way of producing power, hydropower must be looked at in comparison with the entire power grid and other forms of power creation. Although at one point, hydropower accounted for over 50 percent of power creation in the United States, some dams today only supply 5 percent or less. Dam’s power creation is not constant either. Much like wind and air flow, hydropower is derived from how much and how fast water is running through its turbines. During the spring with all of the snow melt, there becomes a surplus of hydropower which then kicks out other renewable energy such as wind power which then sits unused. With all of these aspects considered, are dams the way we want our energy to be produced?
Native American Impact
When the Bureau of Reclamation was founded in the early 1900’s, Native American tribes were still practicing centuries old ways of life on reservations scattered across the western states. Most tribes had treaties with the United States government to protect their ways of life and their traditions on these reservations. The United States government has ruled that these treaties with Native Americans are the law of the land and that they still stand today. This is one of the biggest hypocrisies in government today and in no case is this clearer than with the Elwha tribes in Oregon. With the construction of some of the dams, the Bureau of Reclamation had to strike new treaties with tribes to move their lands out of the flood path. In 1855, the Elwha tribe agreed to the Point No Point Treaty, where in article four it states that the Elwha could return to their native lands to fish salmon and build structures for the curing of the fish. The Elwha’s lifestyle is directly dependant on the salmon and their native migration to their native spawning grounds. WWhen the two Elwha river dams were built, the flooding not only consumed their fishing grounds but religious landmarks that the Elwha tribe thought would be preserved. This disregard for the fishing grounds and religious landmarks is in direct violation of the treaty that the Elwha signed and according to the United States honoring their own treaties, would make these dams illegally built.
Conclusion
Dams were an important stepping stone for industrial America. Their mitigation of floods while revealing fertile farming land that then had a constant supply of water through irrigation was invaluable in the growth of the United States. But with the invention and progression of new renewable energies, is hydropower the most sustainable way to create electricity? Furthermore, how much longer will we allow dams to destroy ecosystems and endanger native species of fish and other aquatic life? Although some dams still fulfill their primary goals 50 years after they were built, the vast majority do not. Out of these dams that are now outdated, some can be taken out to restore thousands of miles of natural habitat for migrating salmon and the ecosystems and lifestyles surrounding them.
Work Cited
Bureau of Reclamation: http://www.usbr.gov/ Endangered Species Act. (n.d.). Retrieved from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/ Hoover Dam. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Hoover_Dam Knight, B. (Director). (2014). DamNation [Motion Picture]. Treaty of Point No Point, 1855. (n.d.). Retrieved from History Link: http:// www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5637
DAM(n)! - A Timeline of Dams in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond
$1.2 Bil
- creation of Bureau of Reclamation, 1.17 bil annual budget
$1 Bil Hoover Dambegins construction, 836 mil
$800 Mil
$600 Mil - 1889 Johnston Flood, 450 mil in damage, 2,200 dead
$400 Mil
$200 Mil
$0
1
1850
2
3
1880
Reclamation Act passed by congress
1890
1900
Federal Water Power Act passed by congress
1910
1920
1930
Golden Age for Dams, 30,000 dams built over 20 years
1) 1855 - Point No Point Treaty accepted by Elwha tribes 2) 1871 - National Fish Hatchery System put in place to respond to poor fish populations due to dams and poor water quality, 3 mil annual budget 3) First dam creating hydropower completed on US side of Niagara Falls 4) 1997 - First major federal dam deconstruction project starts on Marie Dorian Dam on Walla Walla River in Oregon
- Niagara Falls Dam replaces existing outdated dam, 800 mil
5) 2011 - Year of River, initiative started by activists pushing for restoration of Pacific Northwest rivers 6) 2014 - Deconstruction of Elwha Dam completed, 6 mil 7) 2020 - Projected complete deconstruction date of Klamath Dams, 250 mil over four dams
- Lower Snake River Dam Feasibility Study, 400 mil projected cost
- Endangered Species Act passed by congress
1950
1960
1970
1980
4
1990
2000
5
2010
7
6
2020