I just watched Deliverance, so I’m motivated to ask this. I’m aware that since at least the 1920s there has been an active movement to dam and impound rivers for flood control, recreation and electric generation. I remember growing up in the 70s in central missouri watching Truman Dam being built and the subsequent reservoir. It seems we’ve dammed all the rivers we want to now, as I don’t hear much about new projects. Are there any plans or projects currently underway for more river impoundments?
It seems such a odd concept to buy out all the owners and move and bury towns underwater for such massive public works, that if it is occurring now, I’d like to go see it.
This article is quite good.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/americas-hydropower-future_b_1749182.html
When I was a kid, we went on a drive in B.C. We went along the edge of a filling reservoir. Lots of abandoned houses. So we camped in one for a night. Almost everything was just left behind. In the attic was boxes of decades of mail correspondence from all over the world. Along with old eyeglasses used to read and write the letters. We didn’t get much sleep after we started exploring this history that was about to be drowned. Where we were is deep under water now.
New England was heavily built up with dams since the colonial days. The last dam that I recall being built was a re-build of a flow of the river power dam up in Vermont back in the 1980’s.
I think the role has reversed and the discussion now is which ones to take out and remove. A few have already and more on the way.
Poking around on google, I find that Diamond Valley Lake in California was created in the year 2000. It was created by making three earth fill dams and the lake functions as a water reservoir for drought, summer water peak use, and emergency use.
Not really a “new” project, but they did a lot of work on the Los vaqueros Reservoir dam in 2010-2012 to raise the height of the dam to increase the reservoir’s storage capacity.
There have been many smaller dam projects in California, mostly in response to their perpetual (and somewhat self-made) water crisis.
I also found a web site that claimed that of all of the rivers in the U.S. that are over 600 miles in length, only the Yellowstone still flows freely. There was no cite given, but I believe it.
ETA: Speaking of underwater towns, there’s one near me. I live close to Lake Marburg, in Codorus State Park in Pennsylvania. The lake is named after the town of Marburg, which is now underwater. The residents of Marburg were bought out and Codorus Creek was dammed in 1966 to create a large water supply for the paper mill in nearby Spring Grove. The agreement between the state and the paper mill limits the mill’s water use so that the lake has a certain minimum depth during the summer. This allows the lake to also be used for recreational use during the summer. The park was then built around the lake.
There’s a proposed dam in Oregon on Drift Creek. Lots of controversy about flooding out farms, blocking salmon migration, etc. It would be sited on the only tributary of the Pudding River without a dam. It’s a pretty small project as far as PNW dams go.
Which is a large part of what’s going on. Anyplace that can be reasonably dammed and where the water/power could be used has most likely already been dammed.
There are some notable exceptions. E.g., there’s one stretch of the Columbia River that hasn’t been dammed yet. It’s along the stretch where the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is. Ooooh.
By most estimates there are between 85 and 90 thousand dams in the US. Some on the east coast have been around since colonial times. As others pointed out above, there are virtually no new ones being built any more in this country. If you want to see one under construction, you pretty much have to go to Third World countries.
So maybe you should consider watching one get removed. There’s been a movement in the last 25 years or so to remove dams that are environmental problems. Around 70 dams are removed every year. Most are rather small (just like most dams) and probably won’t be that impressive to see. But there’s some big ones in the pipeline, notably the 4 dams on the Klamath River in California and Oregon. It’s hard to say exactly when those will get the heave-ho, but maybe in the next couple years.
The Yukon, Kuskomwim and Tanana Rivers all have no dams and are 600 miles or longer. And Alaska is very much part of the US.
Just a some thought and info from not technically 3 word eu country. For the sake of comparison and debate…
There are two rivers suitable for 10+HE plants. About 3 are in the building. With dams and all. And there are two uplift HE. 1 more in construction. But flicking bird lovers (or as you call them or it tree huggers) are just kicking around and delaying building.
Which country is this?
While there’s no good places to put more major dams in the US, if there were, you can bet the Greens would be staunchly against them. Dams, despite producing electricity without generating GHGs, are still not all that environmentally friendly.
Marc Reisner, in Cadillac Desert noted that dams exist because money always flows uphill toward money.
He also noted: