Critically Endangered Orangutan Species in Indonesia Gets Reprieve as Controversial Dam Delayed
17 July
Animals
Indonesia's dam project might devastate the most critical areas of the Batang Toru ecosystem and drive the Tapanuli orangutan to extinction. Tim Laman / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 4.0
By Hans Nicholas Jong
Construction of a hydropower plant in the only known habitat of a critically endangered orangutan species on the Indonesian island of Sumatra might be delayed for up to three years due to COVID-19 and funding issues.
<p>Muhammad Ikhsan Asaad, who oversees the project for state-owned utility PLN, said the Batang Toru plant was supposed to start operating in 2022, based on the agreement between PLN and project developer PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NHSE).</p><p>"But it might be delayed to 2025, mainly because the drawdown from lender Bank of China is stopped due to environmental concerns as well as COVID-19," he <a href="https://www.dunia-energi.com/proyek-plta-batang-toru-molor-hingga-2025/" target="_blank">said</a>.</p><p>In construction, a drawdown refers to a situation in which a company receives part of the funding necessary to complete a project, and the rest of the funding might be disbursed gradually over the course of the project.</p><p>The project is <a href="https://www.gatra.com/detail/news/426148/politik/plta-batang-toru-selesai-akhir-tahun-2020" target="_blank">estimated to cost</a> $1.68 billion, financed through equity and loans.</p><p>NSHE <a href="https://alert-conservation.org/issues-research-highlights/2018/7/9/alert-scientists-lobby-indonesian-president-to-save-worlds-rarest-ape" target="_blank">initially sought loans</a> from funders like the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). But following the description of a new orangutan species, the Tapanuli orangutan (<em>Pongo tapanuliensis</em>), in the Batang Toru ecosystem in northern Sumatra in 2017, environmentalists have called for the project to be stopped or at least <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/tapanuli-orangutan-batang-toru-nshe-iucn-ape-dam/" target="_blank">halted to allow</a> for an independent scientific study of its impact on the newly known species.</p><p>They say the project might <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/rarest-apes-path-to-survival-blocked-by-roads-dams-and-agriculture/" target="_blank">devastate</a> the most critical areas of the Batang Toru ecosystem and drive the Tapanuli orangutan to extinction. Only 760 of the great apes are estimated to survive in a tiny tract of forest less than one-fifth the size of the metropolitan area that comprises Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.</p><p>Shortly after its description, the Tapanuli orangutan was categorized as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List due to its decreasing population trend — <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/the-worlds-newest-great-ape-revealed-a-month-ago-is-already-nearly-extinct-iucn/" target="_blank">down by 83% </a>in just three generations — and heavily fragmented distribution.</p><p>The IFC and ADB subsequently distanced themselves from the project. And in March 2019, the Bank of China, which is also involved in financing the project, said it had "noted the concerns expressed by some environmental organizations" and promised to carefully review the project. It has not issued any further public updates, leaving the funding for the project uncertain.</p>
<p>NSHE <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesian-dam-raises-questions-about-un-hydropower-carbon-loophole/" target="_blank">has previously confirmed</a> that the project's funding was in doubt as a result of campaigns against the dam.</p><p>PLN director Zulkifli Zaini said environmental issues were among the reason why the project might be delayed.</p><p>"It is true that the project faced hurdles from NGOs over environmental issues," he said. "There are apes and other [animals] there."</p><p>The coronavirus outbreak has also proved to be a setback, with the work on the hydropower plant put on hold since January after construction workers from Chinese state-owned contractor Sinohydro, who had gone home for the Lunar New Year holiday, were barred entry back into Indonesia over health concerns.</p><p>NSHE has submitted a request to PLN, as the buyer of the plant's power, to push the start of the dam's operation to 2025. But the utility said a decision hadn't been made yet.</p>
<p>"NSHE and PLN are still in the stage of discussion or collective review regarding the target of the Batang Toru hydropower dam operational target," NSHE spokesman Firman Taufick said. "Whatever the result of the discussion between NSHE and PLN, we will always follow the policy and direction from PLN."</p><p>A decline in electricity consumption as a result of suspended economic activity during the pandemic is <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2020/06/21/1-5b-batang-toru-hydropower-plant-may-be-delayed-by-years.html" target="_blank">another factor</a> that could delay the project, according to Riza Husni, chairman of APPLTA, a national association of hydropower plant developers.</p><p>Dana Tarigan, the head of the North Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said he hoped PLN would take into account the environmental concerns over the project in making a decision.</p><p>"We're hoping PLN could see the rejection well," he told Mongabay. "There's not only the problem with COVID-19, but also rejections from many parties, whether it's because of [the potential impact on] the orangutan and other biodiversity, or on the safety of the people [living in nearby areas]."</p><p><span></span>Dana said Walhi had staged a protest in 2018 against the project outside the offices of PT Pembangkit Jawa Bali (PJB) Investasi, a subsidiary of PLN that serves as the project sponsor and a shareholder in the Batang Toru power plant.</p><p>The protesters demanded that PJB Investasi, which holds a 25% stake in NSHE, to withdraw from the project.</p><p>Dana also urged PLN to take into account a recent <a href="http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1200343/28292859/1588408298700/BatangToruFactcheckReport.pdf?token=nj9gUyDjXX4hT%2Bx1lW5KLZgXV1M%3D" target="_blank">fact-check report</a> by the IUCN that analyzes the many contradictory claims being made about the project's potential impacts, specifically assertions made by NSHE.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ2MzU0My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDMwMzc3Mn0.RSt0FyDWpXczNirnFjH47Cs8Y3_SVUCaYN2F1nPHgSA/img.jpg?width=980" id="b968f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5002d2e08e15bb5f24a03e8d15077e4d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The Batang Toru River, the proposed power source for a Chinese-funded hydroelectric dam. Ayat S. Karokaro / Mongabay-Indonesia
<h3><strong>Fact-Checking</strong></h3><p>The report identifies several significant claims found in NSHE's publications or press releases as being inaccurate or misleading.</p><p>"In at least ten cases, assertions made in public-facing NSHE literature or on the NSHE website are found to be inconsistent with findings presented in earlier impact assessments conducted on behalf of NSHE," the report says.</p><p>The report also finds other claims made by NSHE contradict findings in peer-reviewed literature and technical reports.</p><p>"Some of these relate to the most controversial aspects of the project such as its impact on the Tapanuli orangutan and the ecology of the Batang Toru river, the demand for the power that the plant would produce, and the project's compliance with international investment standards," the report says.</p><p>Emmy Hafild, a senior adviser to NSHE's chairman, said the report mistakenly accounted for the whole project permit area, instead of its actual footprint, to assess its potential impact on the orangutan. She also said the permit area referred to in the report was based on the company's permit area during exploration stage, which was larger than the current permit area post-exploration.</p><p>"The IUCN fact check report is clearly wrong," Emmy said. "The report uses data that's already outdated and this is the location permit, not the footprint of the project."</p><p>Serge Wich, the co-vice chair of the IUCN primate specialists' section on great apes (SGA) and one of the researchers who described the Tapanuli orangutan, said it's clear the IUCN report refers to the whole permit area in fact-checking the company's claim.</p><p>"[A]nd we have always said that this indicates the maximum impact," he told Mongabay.</p><p>Wich said that while the project might not occupy the full area, its impact on the orangutan could still be devastating due to the location of the project, which lies at a key location for connectivity between the orangutan's subpopulations, split up across three separate blocks: west, east and south. By locating the dam there, the project would jeopardize that connectivity, he said.</p><p>Emmy denied the location of the project would impact the potential for a future forest corridor linking the western and southern populations of the orangutan.</p><p>"The footprint of the project has been checked by our friends [researchers] and it will not disturb the corridor," she said.</p><p>Wich said that might not be the case, as the latest Batang Toru ecosystem map provided by NSHE clearly shows that the project area is "a long wall-like structure cutting those three areas from each other."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ2MzU4Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDY4NjYwMH0.qWonBDpO1gLD1-MTqV2hZlhuGE7HVKmPCkv0h6z0EEo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b01e5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4c3c712122e78960c5eeef2b50d5dda" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/batang-toru-hydropower-dam-tapanuli-orangutan-delay-nshe/" target="_blank"><em>Mongabay.</em></a></p>The map of the Batang Toru ecosystem and the hydropower dam project area. PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE)
<p>Didik Prasetyo, an orangutan researcher at Jakarta's National University, who conducted a study on the project, said he's confident the hydropower dam will not threaten the orangutan as long as NSHE sticks to his recommendations. Among them: limiting the amount of traffic passing over the project's roads; and designing the project's overhead power lines to allow the orangutans to travel safely beneath them.</p><p>"If it's safe, then [the orangutans] will not be scared to briefly walk on the ground [to cross from one population to another]," Didik said. "The width of the road is not too dangerous for the orangutans if there's no one passing on the road. So we're recommending the traffic be limited to particular hours."</p><p>He said rehabilitating impacted areas is also crucial.</p><p>"We're recommending to the company that there are three areas that will be impacted significantly if the company doesn't manage [the project] sustainably," Didik said. "So we recommend these most-threatened areas to be restored as soon as possible."</p><p>He said there are 273 hectares (585 acres) of orangutan habitat in the project area, of which 84 hectares (207 acres) will be used as a location for permanent buildings by the company. The remaining 189 hectares (467 acres) will be reforested, he added.</p><p>NSHE said it will offset permanent forest loss caused by the project by planting trees in other areas, while temporary forest loss will be restored.</p><p>The IUCN report, however, says restoring affected areas might not be feasible. NSHE literature identifies heaps of dug-up dirt as the areas intended for restoration, but the IUCN says this might not be realistic because these areas consist of large amounts of unconsolidated material.</p><p>"The material is from underground and is potentially sterile to rehabilitation efforts and/or volatile to erosive processes," the report says.</p>
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Over the next couple of weeks, crews will fully remove the 125-foot-wide, 25-foot-tall dam, allowing the Middle Fork Nooksack to run free for the first time in 60 years. Ctyonahl / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Tara Lohan
The conclusion to decades of work to remove a dam on the Middle Fork Nooksack River east of Bellingham, Washington began with a bang yesterday as crews breached the dam with a carefully planned detonation. This explosive denouement is also a beginning.
<p><br/></p>
<p class=""><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/nooksack-dam-removal/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nooksack-dam-removal" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>
<p>Over the next couple of weeks, crews will fully remove the 125-foot-wide, 25-foot-tall dam, allowing the Middle Fork Nooksack to run free for the first time in 60 years. With the dam's removal, 16 miles of river and tributary habitat will open up to help boost populations of three threatened Puget Sound fish species: Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout.</p><p>"This project has always ranked at the top of the list for fish recovery projects in this area because of the sheer number of miles of river habitat that are available upstream in a fairly remote and pristine area," says Renee LaCroix, assistant public works director for the city of Bellingham, which owns the dam. "There's no other single project in this area that can match this."</p><p>Two local tribes, the Nooksack and Lummi Nation, have been behind the effort to help restore fish passage and the river's ecological integrity.</p><p>"Our natural resources are our cultural resources," says Trevor Delgado, the Nooksack tribal historic preservation officer. "With this removal we get a little piece of our home back — a place where our people have visited for hundreds of generations."</p><p>LaCroix says the project has no downsides for the city, and it's expected to increase the resilience of the municipal water supply, remove a safety hazard for kayakers, help fish recovery and restore culturally significant resources for the tribes.</p><p>Proponents also hope to see indirect benefits for <a href="https://therevelator.org/save-southern-resident-killer-whales-extinction/" target="_blank">endangered Southern Resident killer whales</a>. This population of orcas ranges across Pacific Northwest coastal waters and <a href="https://www.mmc.gov/priority-topics/species-of-concern/southern-resident-killer-whale/" target="_blank">relies on dwindling numbers of Chinook</a> as a main food source. Fewer than 80 of the whales remain, and Chinook populations have fallen so low that the orcas have started <a href="https://www.q13fox.com/news/chinook-salmon-decimated-southern-resident-orcas-are-residents-no-more" target="_blank">altering their traditional migration patterns</a> as they search for fish to eat.</p><p>But even with the dam removal's many benefits and municipal and tribal support, the path to this moment hasn't been easy.</p>
The History
<p>The Middle Fork Nooksack drains glacier-fed headwater streams that run off the icy summit of 10,778-foot Mt. Baker. The Middle Fork joins the North Fork and then the mainstem of the Nooksack River, which travels to Bellingham Bay and Puget Sound. The entire Nooksack watershed stretches 830 square miles across Washington and into British Columbia.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1ODg5Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTM4MjU3OX0.xukdfxAnfHt_A24vvWHf30SCX0R9jk3qcWK6PcBHyhI/img.png?width=980" id="c3923" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0033be9942c3db23fca400a4533dfc6e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
American Rivers
<p>For generations the river and its surrounding habitat have physically and spiritually nourished Indigenous peoples — including the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the Lummi Nation.</p><p>But all that changed when the dam was built in in 1961 to divert water to the city of Bellingham to supplement its main water supply in Lake Whatcom — the drinking water for the now-85,000 residents in the city and county. As soon as it went up, the dam obstructed fish passage, altered the river's flow, and disrupted the ability of tribal members to use a culturally significant area.</p><p>For the past four decades, Delgado says, the Nooksack have pushed for dam removal. They got close in the early 2000s, when the Nooksack and Lummi Nation entered into an official agreement with the city and state to work on a solution that would allow fish passage, including the possible installation of fish ladders. But despite years of work, a suitable fix wasn't found, and the effort had completely stalled by 2016.</p><p>The following year the nonprofit <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/" target="_blank">American Rivers</a>, which works on watershed restoration and has extensive experience in dam-removal efforts, stepped in with financial backing from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. American Rivers' April McEwan assumed a project management role and brought parties back to the table and soon into agreement on a plan to remove the dam and reengineer the city's water intake from the river.</p><p>"What we know about dam removal is that if you can remove the infrastructure and restore the channel to natural conditions, that's always the best way to get fish passage," says McEwan.</p><p>The final cost of the project came in at around $20 million — way more than the city could afford on its own. About half of the cost eventually came from the state and the city is collaborating with federal agencies on the distribution of another $2 million in Pacific Salmon Treaty funds. But before applying for that money, the city had to complete costly initial design and permitting work. Private foundations — largely the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, along with Resources Legacy Fund — picked up 70% of those initial costs.</p><p>LaCroix says help from American Rivers and the foundations was hugely important in getting the project "shovel ready" so it could apply for the construction funds it needed.</p><p>Removing the dam infrastructure was just part of the cost, though. Reworking the city's water intake also required some tricky engineering.</p>
A Plan Comes Together
<p>The Middle Fork dam is not a pool dam built for water storage. Much of the time, water flows over the top until dam operators drop a floodgate to divert water to new locations. That water travels about 14 miles through tunnel and pipeline to Mirror Lake, then Anderson Creek, and to Lake Whatcom before finally being delivered to residents' taps.</p><p>Before removing the dam, engineers had to move the water intake 700 feet upstream and situate it at an elevation that still enabled city water withdrawals throughout the year, regardless of flow conditions.</p><p>They also needed to make sure that the rushing water didn't sweep up fish and accidentally send them through the water-supply system.</p><p>"The solution required a fairly complex design in the intake structure, including a fish exit pipe out of that structure to put fish back into the river in a way that meets current environmental permit standards," explains LaCroix.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1ODk1Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTcxODcyN30.stOgraXNQZGmfADeQUdXCB2RR3Aka6FwLOxl377s-3w/img.jpg?width=980" id="7669a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ee070ad97b1353f5baa7c8886acb341" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Project layout for the removal of the Middle Fork Nooksack diversion dam and rebuilding of water intake. City of Bellingham
<p>Despite the cost and the work, she says, being able to continue to meet their municipal water obligations while opening up habitat for threatened species has been a win-win.</p><p>"I think there's a lot of benefits to having a dam removal versus fish passage — the main one being that you get a free-flowing river that can be a dynamic ecosystem and change over time," she says. "A static fish ladder just can't provide that same level of ecosystem benefit."</p>Restoration Success
<p>Despite local authorities' championing dam removal on the Middle Fork, the project has largely flown under the radar, overshadowed in the Pacific Northwest by heated discussions about a much larger potential project — removing <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/feds-reject-removal-of-4-snake-river-dams-in-key-report/" target="_blank">four federal hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River</a>, a major tributary of the Columbia River.</p><p>Proponents of dam removal there see it as the best chance for recovering threatened salmon populations, including Chinook, which could help starving Southern Resident killer whales. Those dams also provide irrigation water, barge navigation and hydropower, so there's been more pushback against removal efforts.</p><p>Previous dam removals around the country, however, have proved successful at aiding fish recovery and river restoration.</p><p>Most notably the 1999 demolition of <a href="https://therevelator.org/edwards-dam-removal/" target="_blank">Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River</a> restored the annual run of alewives, a type of herring essential to the food web. The fish run has gone from zero to 5 million in the two decades since dam removal. Blueback herring, striped bass, sturgeon and shad have also extended their reach. And the resurgence has brought back osprey, bald eagles and other wildlife, too.</p><p>The overwhelming success of river restoration on the Kennebec helped to spur a nationwide dam removal movement that's now seen 1,200 dams come down since 1999. Last year a record <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/conservation-resource/a-record-26-states-removed-dams-in-2019/" target="_blank">90 dams</a> were removed in 26 states, including <a href="https://therevelator.org/cleveland-forest-dam-removal/" target="_blank">20 dams in California's Cleveland National Forest</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1ODk4MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NjM5NTQ0Nn0.X2icIzmemq9oxKqfGRz4nox9rsOYZMTgUCLbCTGc5ZE/img.jpg?width=980" id="e9db0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f227785f21cb59b1ff2fd70db6ccc6c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Spider excavators remove on dam on San Juan Creek in California's Cleveland National Forest. Julie Donnell, USFS
<p>The results have been seen in the Pacific Northwest, as well, which boasts the largest dam removal thus far in the country. In 2011 and 2014, the demolition of <a href="https://therevelator.org/elwha-dam-removal/" target="_blank">two dams</a> on Elwha River, which runs through Washington's Olympic National Park, opened up 70 miles of habitat that had been blocked for a century. Scientists have started seeing all five species of salmon native to the river coming back, particularly Chinook and coho. Bull trout, they've observed, have increased in size since the dams were removal.</p>Benefits on the Middle Fork Nooksack
<p>McEwan hopes to see a similar outcome on the Middle Fork.</p><p>Like the Elwha the Middle Fork Nooksack is a relatively pristine river with little development, and dam removal is expected to provide a big boost to fish. The additional miles of spawning habitat are important, but so is the temperature of that water.</p><p>The dam removal will open access to cold upstream waters, which are ideal for salmon and getting harder to come by as climate change warms waters and reduces mountain runoff.</p><p>"This is really great for the climate change resiliency for these species," says McEwan.</p><p>Steelhead will get back 45% of their historic habitat in the river, and scientists expect Chinook populations to increase in abundance by 31%.</p><p>That <em>could</em> help Southern Resident killer whales.</p><p>"When you get to the ocean, it's a little bit of a black box in terms of what you can model and say definitively is going to help, but more fish is better for orcas," McEwan says.</p><p>Upstream habitat will see benefits, too.</p><p>Oceangoing fish like salmon enrich their bodies with carbon and nitrogen while at sea. When they return to their natal rivers to spawn and die, the marine-derived nutrients they carry back upriver become important food and fertilizer for both riverine and terrestrial ecosystems — aiding everything from trees to birds to bears.</p><p>"Once the fish start making their way back, it will start changing the whole ecological system," says Delgado.</p><p><span></span>But any ecological benefit from salmon restoration, either in the ocean or the upper watershed, won't be immediate.<br></p><p>"The population of salmon on the Middle Fork is so low that we expect it's going to take quite a while to rebound," she says. "But the big picture is that what's good for salmon is good for the region — our history and our destiny are intricately intertwined."</p><p>After decades of work, that process of restoration has finally begun.</p>From Your Site Articles
- 4 Exciting Dam-Removal Projects to Watch - EcoWatch ›
- Jump-Starting the Dam Removal Movement in the U.S. - EcoWatch ›
- Boom: Removing 81 Dams Is Transforming This California Watershed ›
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The Blue Nile river passes through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia on December 26, 2019. EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP / Getty Images
By Sonya Angelica Diehn
Dams are often touted as environmentally friendly. Although they do represent a renewable source of energy, a closer look reveals that they are far from green. DW lays out the biggest environmental problems of mega-dams.
1. Dams Alter Ecosystems
<p>Water is life — and since dams block water, that impacts life downstream, both for ecosystems and people. In the case of the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ethiopia-egypt-sudan-make-slow-progress-in-nile-dam-row/a-52015611" target="_blank">Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)</a>, which is being built in Ethiopia and is set to be Africa's largest source of hydroelectric power, Egypt is concerned it will receive less water for things like agriculture.</p><p>Downstream ecosystems rely not only on water, but also on sediment, both of which are held back by big dams. As solid materials build up in a manmade reservoir, downstream land becomes less fertile and riverbeds can become deeper or even erode away. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/47/11891" target="_blank">Emilio Moran</a>, a professor of geography and environment at Michigan State University in the US, described sediment loss of 30 to 40% as a result of large dams.</p><p>"Rivers carry sediment that feeds the fish, it feeds the entire vegetation along the river. So, when you stop sediment flowing freely down the streams, you have a dead river."</p><p>And ecosystems may have adapted to natural flooding, which dams take away. </p><p>Mega-dams also often have a large footprint on land upstream. Aside from displacing human communities, flooding to create a reservoir also kills plants, and leaves <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/tanzanias-biggest-wildlife-reserve-under-threat/a-43902762" target="_blank">animals to drown or find new homes</a>. Reservoirs can also further fragment valuable habitat and cut off migratory corridors. </p>2. Dams Reduce Biodiversity and Cause Extinction
<p>Aquatic species, particularly fish, are vulnerable to the impacts of dams. Moran says the Itaipu Dam, which was constructed on the border between Paraguay and Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s, resulted in a 70 percent loss of biodiversity.</p><p>"On the Tucuruí Dam that was built in the 80s in the Amazon," he added, "there was a 60% drop in productivity of fish."</p><p>Many fish species rely on the ability to move about freely in a river, be it to seek food or return to where they were born. Migratory species are badly affected by the presence of dams. In 2016, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported a 99% drop in catches of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/poaching-dams-imperil-ancient-danube-fish/a-43907515" target="_blank">sturgeon</a> and paddlefish — both of which are migratory — over a period of three decades. Overfishing and river alteration were cited as major threats to the species' survival. </p><p>A <a href="http://www.mrcmekong.org/highlights/the-study-on-sustainable-management-and-development-of-the-mekong-river-including-impacts-of-mainstream-hydropower-projects/" target="_blank">2018 study</a> predicted that fish stocks on <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/a-dam-building-race-threatens-the-mekong-river/a-50049206" target="_blank">Asia's Mekong River</a> could drop by 40% as a result of dam projects – with consequences not only for biodiversity, but for the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on those fish.</p><p>The stakes for biodiversity are particularly high for animals threatened with extinction. And not only for aquatic species. The <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/new-orangutan-species-found-in-indonesian-forest/a-41217498" target="_blank">Tapanuli orangutan</a> — the Earth's rarest ape, with only 500 individuals left — could finally be pushed to the brink if a planned hydroelectric project in Sumatra, Indonesia, is completed. Dams can literally snuff out species. </p>3. Dams Contribute to Climate Change (and Are Affected by It)
<p>As reservoirs fill, upstream forests are flooded, eliminating their function as carbon sinks. As the drowned vegetation decomposes, decaying plants in manmade reservoirs release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. That makes reservoirs sources of emissions — particularly those in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/forest-sos-earths-green-lungs-disappear/a-44908586" target="_blank">tropical forests</a>, where there is dense growth. It's estimated that greenhouse gas emissions from dams amount to about <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/66/11/949/2754271" target="_blank">a billion tons annually</a>, making it a significant global source.</p><p>And as the climate changes, more frequent and prolonged drought means dams will capture less water, resulting in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/hydropower-supply-dries-up-with-climate-change/a-42472070" target="_blank">lower electricity production</a>. Countries dependent on hydropower will be especially vulnerable as temperatures keep rising. </p><p>Moran described a vicious circle, for example in Brazil, which gets 60 to 70% of its energy from hydropower: "If you wipe out half the rainforest, there will a loss of half the rainfall. And then there won't be enough water to provide the amount of power from those dams," he explained. </p>4. Dams Reduce Water Quality
<p>Manmade reservoirs trap fertilizers that run into the water from surrounding land. In addition, in some developing countries, sewage flows directly into the reservoirs. This kind of pollution can result in algae blooms that suck the oxygen out of the water, making it acidic and potentially harmful to people and animals.</p><p>Still water in large manmade lakes is warm at the top and cold at the bottom, which can also affect water quality. While warm water promotes the growth of harmful algae, the cold water that is often released through turbines from the bottom of a reservoir may contain damagingly high mineral concentrations. </p><p>In some cases, water in manmade reservoirs is of such bad quality that it is not even fit to drink. </p>5. Dams Waste Water
<p>Since more surface area of the water gets exposed to the sun, reservoirs result in much more evaporation than the natural flow of the river before that dam existed. It's estimated at least 7% of the total amount of freshwater needed for human activities evaporates from the world's reservoirs every year.</p><p>This effect is made worse in hot regions, Moran pointed out. "Certainly if you had a reservoir in a tropical area with high temperatures, there is going to be a lot of evaporation," he said. And big reservoirs "are, of course, evaporating constantly."</p><p>Reservoirs are also a haven for invasive plant species, and weed-covered reservoir banks can lead to evapotranspiration — or the transfer of water from the land to the atmosphere through evaporation from soil and transpiration from plants. Such evapotranspiration amounts to six times more than the evaporation from the water's surface. And there is even evidence that dams increase water use and promote water waste by creating a false sense of water security. </p><p>In the face of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/water-shortages-pose-growing-risk-to-global-stability/a-50394997" target="_blank">dwindling global freshwater resources</a>, some question whether dams should be reconsidered. </p>So What Are the Alternatives?
<p>The evidence is damning. But if mega-dams have so many harmful environmental effects, what are the alternatives? Although some green groups point to small hydropower as being more ecologically sound, Moran is skeptical. "A dam is a dam - it's blocking the fish, it's blocking the sediment."</p><p>He pointed to the need to consider not just how to maximize energy production, but also maintain ecological productivity. One option he cited is the use of in-stream turbines. </p><p>And many environment advocates agree that other renewable energies such as solar and wind can provide clean electricity at a far lower environmental cost. </p>From Your Site Articles
- Planned Mega-Dam Threatens Fish Populations and Food Security ... ›
- Dams Cause Climate Change, They Are Not Clean Energy - EcoWatch ›
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Floodwaters flowing from the Tittabawassee River into the lower part of downtown Midland on May 20, 2020 in Midland, Michigan. Thousands of residents have been ordered to evacuate after two dams in Sanford and Edenville collapsed. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
Around 10,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in central Michigan after heavy rain prompted what the National Weather Service called "catastrophic failures" at two dams.
<p>The Edenville and Sanford dams collapsed Tuesday night, threatening to drench the town of Midland, Michigan under nine feet of water, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-flood-michigan/michigan-governor-declares-emergency-after-dams-collapse-idUSKBN22W071" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> comes as Michigan suffers one of the nation's worst <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> outbreaks, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/michigan-flooding-dams-midland.html" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>. It currently has 53,009 confirmed cases, according to <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University data</a> as of Thursday morning, the seventh highest total in the U.S.</p><p>"It's hard to believe that we're in the middle of a 100-year crisis, a global pandemic, and we're also dealing with a flooding event that looks to be the worst in 500 years," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, as The New York Times reported.</p>
<div id="75598" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dfc9460186b20166593cfef9d16e3a22"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262933097437372417" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">.@GovWhitmer declared a state of emergency for @midlandcountymi after the Edenville & Sanford Dams breached. “If yo… https://t.co/TH05rXRSOe</div> — Michigan.gov (@Michigan.gov)<a href="https://twitter.com/migov/statuses/1262933097437372417">1589941689.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Much of the town of Midland, Michigan, which has a population of 42,000, was inundated with record flooding Wednesday, <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/aging-dams-changing-climate-a-dangerous-mix" target="_blank">Weather Underground reported</a>. The Tittabawassee River gauge at Midland measured a water level about one foot above the previous record of 33.89 feet as of 2 p.m. local time. The river was expected to crest in the afternoon and evening, the National Weather Service said.</p>
<div id="6142b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f6ce12aef87db2e2bda5299bc964dd08"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1263149334079500289" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Extremely dangerous flooding continues across Midland County along the Tittabawassee River! Anyone near the river s… https://t.co/MnY20AFEGh</div> — NWS Detroit (@NWS Detroit)<a href="https://twitter.com/NWSDetroit/statuses/1263149334079500289">1589993244.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>No deaths or injuries have been reported, according to The New York Times, but the event puts further pressure on residents and businesses already reeling from the impact of the coronavirus.</p><p>"It's disastrous," evacuee Sue Baranski from neighboring Sanford told The New York Times. "Between the devastation from the flooding and the virus and the small-business owners trying to make their way through that, it's just too much."</p>
<div id="0740a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5231ecadb26980033bcd7532add825b0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1263117939315814405" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">These photos of Midland County were captured this morning by MSP Aviation. @CityofMidlandMI @midlandcountymi… https://t.co/JcGiGtzQab</div> — MSP Bay Region (@MSP Bay Region)<a href="https://twitter.com/mspbayregion/statuses/1263117939315814405">1589985758.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The flooding is the result of two environmental crises and may be the author of a third.</p><p>First, there's the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. Warming temperatures are expected to increase precipitation in northern midlatitudes and lead to more intense periods of rainfall in many places, including the U.S., as Weather Underground pointed out. In Michigan, this process is already underway. 2019 was its wettest year on record, and Midland is 1.35 feet of rainfall away from its wettest May on record. Its rainfall total for Monday and Tuesday was its third highest on record.<br></p><p>Then there's the state of one of the dams that failed. Federal regulators had warned for more than 20 years that the spillways at the Edenville Dam were not up to handling a major flood, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/20/politics/ferc-edenville-dam-midland-michigan-flooding/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>. However, they waited more than 13 years to crack down on the private company that operated the dam when it failed to comply, finally revoking its license in 2018. Oversight of the dam also passed from the federal government to the state of Michigan that year. Whitmer has promised an investigation of dam operator Boyce Hydro.</p>
<p>"This incredible damage requires that we hold people responsible," Whitmer said, as <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/michigan-governor-warns-floods-peak_n_5ec569b6c5b6ea08c805eaeb?ri18n=true" target="_blank">HuffPost reported</a>. "This was a known problem for a while and that's why it's important that we do our due diligence and take action."</p><p>The flood also has the potential to cause lasting environmental damage as Dow Chemical confirmed Wednesday that flood waters were "commingling with on-site containment ponds," <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/20/859333402/catastrophic-dam-failures-in-michigan-force-thousands-to-evacuate" target="_blank">NPR reported</a>. The flood also reached a Superfund site caused by a Dow release of dioxins, according to CNN.</p>
<div id="b21c1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="089435121e83028de50619583832e24d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262935856857395200" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Midland, Michigan is home to Dow Chemical, one of the world's largest chemical companies.
Dow's facilities appear… https://t.co/468UwgO8UQ</div> — Meghan Schneider (@Meghan Schneider)<a href="https://twitter.com/meghanloisann/statuses/1262935856857395200">1589942347.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"[T]this has the potential to be a major environmental disaster. Climate Power communications director Meghan Schneider tweeted.</p>
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Spider excavators remove on dam on San Juan Creek in California's Cleveland National Forest. Julie Donnell / USFS
Removing one gigantic dam can have a massive effect on restoring a river ecosystem.
<p>But bringing down more than 80 smaller dams? That can also cause a transformation.<em></em><span class="redactor-selection-marker" id="selection-marker-1"></span></p>
<p>This spring the Forest Service, aided by U.S. Marine Corps members, will blast apart 13 more dams in the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/cleveland/recarea/?recid=47402" target="_blank">Trabuco ranger district</a> in Southern California's Cleveland National Forest.</p><p>It's the last phase of a groundbreaking project that began more than five years ago to remove a total of 81 dams from four streams in the mountains of Orange County.</p><p>"Nobody's really taken on a project this large and with this many partners and methods," says Forest Service fish biologist Julie Donnell, who's been working on the project.</p><p>The mammoth undertaking is designed to help boost populations of native aquatic species — most importantly Southern California steelhead (<em>Oncorhynchus mykiss</em>), which are federally listed as endangered.</p>
<p>It may also be a crucial learning tool due its sheer scope. Last year an estimated 90 dams were removed across the country, and nearly a quarter of those were in the Cleveland National Forest. That makes what's happening in California the place to watch as organizations plan for other multi-dam removal efforts around the country.</p><p>"Looking at what the Forest Service did is a really smart way for other agencies to begin to think about their infrastructure," says Serena McClain, the director of river restoration at the nonprofit American Rivers, which <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/2020/02/record-number-of-states-26-remove-dams-in-2019/" target="_blank">tracks dam-removal efforts</a>. "The Forest Service is showing that the federal government can lead on this and demonstrate the possibility for the private sector and municipalities."</p><p>In addition to the work in the national forest itself, the ecological success of the project hinges on a downstream effort to remove two more barriers that prevent steelhead from reaching the forest as they migrate from the ocean.</p><p>The two projects have brought together a diverse, and unlikely, coalition of transportation departments, federal agencies, environmental nonprofits, local governments, and even the U.S. Marine Corps to help complete an ocean-to-headwaters restoration of more than 35 miles.</p><p>"This addresses one of the major threats to endangered southern steelhead," says Sandra Jacobson, the South Coast regional director of <a href="https://caltrout.org/" target="_blank">California Trout</a>, which is leading the downstream effort. "Once you open up the rivers, it allows a tremendous change in the accessibility of steelhead to their historical habitat so that they can go in and reproduce."</p>
A Group Effort
<p>Large dam removals, like those on the <a href="https://therevelator.org/klamath-dam-science/" target="_blank">Klamath River</a> in California and Oregon, or the <a href="https://therevelator.org/save-southern-resident-killer-whales-extinction/" target="_blank">hotly debated Snake River dams</a> in Washington, get lots of media attention. But smaller dam removals are quietly happening all across the country.</p><p>In the past 20 years around 1,100 dams have been removed in the United States — many of them aging, unsafe structures that had outlived their usefulness.</p><p>That's the story in the Cleveland National Forest, too.</p><p>Not a lot is known about the early history of the dams there, but most were likely built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public work program started to help Americans rebound from the Great Depression, says Kirsten Winter, a biologist in the Cleveland National Forest who has spearheaded the dam-removal project. It's not unusual for dams to be built in national forests, but this high a concentration of small dams may be a regional phenomenon in Southern California forests.</p><p>Most of these original dams would likely have washed away over time, but in the Cleveland National Forest, Orange County increased the size of the dams using native rock and mortar from the 1940s through the mid-1970s. Gates were lowered in the spring and raised in the fall to control the flow of the rivers. The impounded water was used mostly for fish stocking and recreation and was also available for fire suppression.</p><p>But eventually, Winter says, the dams aged, and the county got tired of maintaining them. Many washed out in storms. A few were removed in the 1980s by the county, and the gates were taken out of the remaining dams. Most fell back under Forest Service jurisdiction.</p><p>In recent years it became clear that some of the dams posed safety hazards and impeded fish migration. As part of a federal recovery effort to recover populations of endangered southern steelhead, a plan was developed to remove the 81 dams in the San Juan watershed on Upper San Juan Creek, Trabuco Creek, Holy Jim and Silverado Creek.</p><p>Projects of this scope require environmental assessments under the National Environmental Protection Act. Because the Forest Service had the forethought to take a watershed view of the project from the get-go they only needed to complete <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/93703_FSPLT3_1606568.pdf" target="_blank">one environmental assessment</a> for the removal of the whole kit and caboodle, which helped make the permitting process more efficient.</p><p>With that in place, the dam-removal work began in December 2014. The project has a $1.2 million price tag, but the majority of funding hasn't come from the Forest Service itself.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjg4NzU5OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMDk0OTM5Nn0.KTfL7dGcJHoEgXLO7NdytHuY_H3NXDoZuRo0hdA2_6w/img.jpg?width=980" id="2c62c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e6aa408acf52624fefe57b4e686abae7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Before and after dam removal on San Juan Creek in the Cleveland National Forest. Julie Donnell / USFS
<p>The project has generated a lot of interest and a diverse array of partners, including California Department of Transportation, Federal Highways Administration, Orange County Parks, Orange County Transportation Authority, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Marine Corps. The coalition has brought funds, organizational support, technical knowledge and a lot of energy to the process.</p><p>"People are really pretty enthused about removing dams," says Winter.</p><p>Despite all the partners, it's still been a learning experience, she adds, because the dams vary so much in size and accessibility. Some are just a few feet high and 10 feet wide. Others reach 14 feet in height and stretch up to 100 feet across.</p><p>To breach the dams and break apart the mortar, crews employed a wide range of techniques. For sites near roads, they bought in conventional excavators. Steeper canyons required the use of a nimble "spider" excavator. Explosives took down a few dams where appropriate, while other places required sledgehammers and jackhammers. An extra bit of muscle (organizational and otherwise) came from a partnership with Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton. Corps members have helped remove 31 dams since 2018.</p>Ecological Benefits
<p>The biggest benefactors of the dam removals in the Cleveland National Forest will be steelhead — a type of salmonid. Like salmon, steelhead are anadromous, spending their time in both freshwater streams and the ocean. But unlike salmon that return to their natal headwater streams to spawn and die, steelhead will often spawn more than once.</p><p>They're also a key indicator species, says Jacobson. "When they disappear, that means there are probably multiple issues within a watershed."</p><p>In the San Juan, dams are one of them.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjg4NzU5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDg1ODYxOX0.ni92xVjUCCNKaVujkcUyGcjm5Z5W5kbaM4Oro1VEPbI/img.jpg?width=980" id="989c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2964b87f1da445926d3b21b372b6479d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Endangered Southern California steelhead spawning in Maria Ygnacio Creek in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Mark H. Capelli / WCR / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>"Dams create a very artificial situation," says Winter. "It's not just that they hold water, but they retain sediment and then they create these weird splash pools below."</p><p>Without the dams, the streams are able to create a more natural gradient and pool structure. That's good for other native wildlife like the arroyo toad and the arroyo chub, both federally listed as endangered, as well as the California newt, a California Species of Special Concern.</p><p>While the process of removing the dams can be a bit messy, "we've seen no negative effects to the habitat or to species due to the dam removal," says Donnell.</p><p>One of the biggest concerns with any dam removal is ensuring that any trapped sediment released from behind the structures doesn't cause ecological problems as it moves downstream. But Donnell says they've timed the removals to account for that and the streams naturally carry large sediment loads during storm events.</p><p>"We're actually doing some of dams in phases rather than all at one time because of the sediment load that's being held behind them," she says.</p><p>In areas where dams have been removed, Donnell has already noticed an improvement. "The bedload and sediment transport have been able to naturally flow once again," she says. "And the channel is starting to adjust back to a natural state."</p>A Connected Watershed
<p>As groundbreaking as the Cleveland National Forest's efforts are, the benefits for steelhead hinge on the downstream initiative.</p><p>Just five miles inland from Doheny State Beach, around the town of San Juan Capistrano, two barriers on Trabuco Creek block steelhead from 15 miles of upstream spawning habitat in the San Juan Creek watershed.</p><p>A quarter-mile-long concrete flood-control channel runs underneath five bridges, including the north- and southbound lanes of Interstate 5. The drop and the speed of water flowing through the hardened channel inhibits steelhead from making it through the gauntlet.</p><p>The second barrier sits a half-mile downstream, where another 20-foot drop under a bridge for the Metrolink regional railway poses an insurmountable roadblock for steelhead.</p><p>To solve both of these problems, California Trout is leading the multiagency design effort for a technical fish passage that will enable steelhead to navigate these obstacles using staggered weirs. At the I-5 obstacle, an additional fish transport channel will provide steelhead with an express lane to avoid the flood control channel and pass under the array of bridges.</p><p>The organization is working with fellow nonprofit Trout Unlimited, as well as Orange County's flood control district and public works office, the city of San Juan Capistrano, California Department of Transportation, and the Metrolink railroad association.</p><p>"We just received funding to complete the design," says Jacobson. The fish passages are expected to be completed around 2023 to 2025.</p>
<p>It's one part of a <a href="https://therevelator.org/california-steelhead-trout-watersheds/" target="_blank">larger regional effort</a> by the South Coast Steelhead Coalition, which consists of more than 35 organizations working to recover stable populations of the species in Southern California. Removing barriers to fish passage is a key element of the strategy, as are ensuring adequate water quantity and quality and removing nonnative species that compete for limited resources.</p><p>But there's one more objective: helping native rainbow trout. These resident trout are the same species as steelhead, but with a different life history — they don't migrate to the ocean. Since steelhead have been blocked from the upstream waters for nearly a century, resident trout populations have suffered from genetic isolation.</p><p>Only two resident trout populations remained in the region and one had to be emergency evacuated by a bucket brigade following the Holy Fire in 2018, which burned across the forest and threatened the water quality in the streams.</p><p>The removal of all the stream barriers — on and off the forest — will provide an opportunity for aquatic species to be more resilient. The wildfire is a perfect example of why that's needed, says Jacobson.</p><p>"It really gives the aquatic species the mobility they need to move around in response to drought, floods and wildfires," she says. "It's good for all sorts of species, too, not just fish."</p>
Ripple Effect
<p>With the dam removals in the Cleveland National Forest nearing completion, Donnell says she's hoping to soon begin presenting her data and methodologies so others can learn from the project.</p><p>"We've definitely heard from other forests and other districts wanting to know how we went about it, because this is new," she says.</p><p>McClain says American Rivers has been sharing the project's success story because it's a good example of how to think holistically about managing water and restoration opportunities for aquatic ecosystems.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjg4NzYwMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNTA4NzU0Mn0.OZ3RwgvKJ3cSBF2gOZa3aUVfUvKuN9Kic_2WrfqjyO0/img.jpg?width=980" id="59d33" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1c958a8d85d9dd55c95135c3597ed6f7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/cleveland-forest-dam-removal/">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>San Juan Creek in the Cleveland National Forest shortly after a dam was removed. Julie Donnell / USFS
<p>But it also makes sense fiscally. Why spend money maintaining dams we don't need?</p><p>"Even from a federal budget management perspective, we should be looking at where there may be projects on the federal books that are no longer serving a purpose," she says.</p><p>Thanks to the coordinated efforts in the San Juan watershed, southern steelhead will have a better chance of survival. But efforts to try and aid their recovery also have a larger benefit.</p><p>"We're not only restoring their environment, but also ours," Jacobson says. "We're actually improving the rivers overall."</p><p>And in the process, they may have established a model for mass dam removal across the country.</p>From Your Site Articles
- 4 Exciting Dam-Removal Projects to Watch - EcoWatch ›
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Australia's Iconic Platypus Faces Extinction Threat Due to Climate Change and Human Activity
30 January
Animals
A new study raises concerns about the decline of platypus populations. UNSW Science
The devastating wildfires in Australia that have claimed the lives of more than a billion animals, by some estimates, are just one of the effects of global climate change the country's wildlife is grappling with. Australia is also currently in the grips of an extreme drought, and the nationwide average daily temperature recently hit nearly 106 degrees Fahrenheit, shattering the previous record.
<p>According to a new study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108399" target="_blank">published in the journal Biological Conservation</a> this month, the severe drought conditions and heat, combined with habitat loss and other impacts of human activities, are pushing one of Australia's most enigmatic and iconic endemic species, the duck-billed platypus, toward extinction.</p><p>The study, led by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, examines the potential impacts on platypus populations from the range of threats the animals are facing, including water resource development, fragmentation of river habitats by dams, land clearing for agriculture, invasive species, global climate change, and increasingly severe periods of drought.</p><p>Richard Kingsford, director of the UNSW Sydney Centre for Ecosystem Science and a co-author of the study, noted that platypuses live in areas undergoing extensive human development, which threatens their long-term viability. "These include dams that stop their movements, agriculture which can destroy their burrows, fishing gear and yabby traps which can drown them and invasive foxes which can kill them," Kingsford said in a <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/platypus-brink-extinction" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
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New UNSW research shows the possibility of the iconic Australian platypus becoming extinct because of threats including climate change and human-related habitat loss. UNSW Science
<p>According to the research, current climatic conditions together with the impacts of human activities and other threats could lead to platypus abundance declining anywhere from 47% to 66% over the next 50 years and cause the extinction of local platypus populations across about 40% of the species' range.</p><p>The study's lead author, Gilad Bino of UNSW Sydney's Centre for Ecosystem Science, said that action must be taken immediately to prevent the disappearance of the platypus. "There is an urgent need to implement national <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> efforts for this unique mammal and other species by increasing monitoring, tracking trends, mitigating threats, and protecting and improving management of freshwater habitats," Bino said in a <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/platypus-brink-extinction" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>When taking into account predictions of how global climate change and its impacts will worsen in coming decades, Bino and team determined that platypus abundance could be reduced by as much as 73% over the next 50 years, mostly due to increases in extreme drought frequencies and duration. "These dangers further expose the platypus to even worse local extinctions with no capacity to repopulate areas," Bino said.</p>
<p>These impacts would increase the platypus' risk of extinction such that a downgraded listing on the IUCN Red List would be warranted, Bino and team state in the study. The species is currently listed as "<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T40488A21964009.en" target="_blank">Near Threatened</a>," but would likely qualify as "Vulnerable," according to the researchers. Bino argued that the team's findings add to an increasing body of evidence showing that the platypus, like many other native Australian species, is on the path to extinction.</p><p>Study co-author Brendan Wintle, a professor at the University of Melbourne, said that it was imperative that conservation measures be implemented now to forestall the platypus's slide into extinction: "Even for a presumed 'safe' species such as the platypus, mitigating or even stopping threats, such as new <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dams">dams</a>, is likely to be more effective than waiting for the risk of extinction to increase and possible failure."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/severe-drought-and-other-climate-impacts-are-driving-the-platypus-towards-extinction/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A Chinese paddlefish exhibited in the Museum of Hydrobiological Sciences, Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Alneth / CC BY-SA 4.0
Scientists have concluded of the largest freshwater fish species in the world is now extinct because of human activity.
<p>The Chinese paddlefish, sometimes called the "panda of the Yangtze River," was found to have been lost to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/overfishing" target="_self">overfishing</a> and habitat destruction, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-01-chinese-paddlefish-declared-extinct.html" target="_blank">Phys.org reported Wednesday</a>. Its extinction was announced and documented by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences in a paper published in<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719362382" target="_blank"> Science of the Total Environment</a>.</p><p>It's "a reprehensible and an irreparable loss," study leader Qiwei Wei told <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/chinese-paddlefish-one-of-largest-fish-extinct/?cmpid=org%3Dngp%3A%3Amc%3Dsocial%3A%3Asrc%3Dfacebook%3A%3Acmp%3Deditorial%3A%3Aadd%3Dfb20200108animals-chinesepaddlefishextinct%3A%3Arid%3D&sf227680806=1&fbclid=IwAR2zFzJOTjypqsCf1LtEabiQJLxV2use5Hzltosbiwld2nmt50yRxccjMa0" target="_blank">National Geographic</a>.</p><p>The Chinese paddlefish could grow to be 23 feet long and 992 pounds in weight, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/07/asia/chinese-paddlefish-extinct-study-intl-hnk-scli/index.html" target="_blank">according to CNN</a>. It took its name from its long snout, according to Phys.org. It was also ancient: The species had existed since 200 million years ago and survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, National Geographic pointed out.</p><p>The species declined slowly in the last century, at first because of fishing. In the 1970s, 25 tons worth were caught a year. But an even more devastating change came when the Gezhouba Dam was built on the Yangtze in 1981, dividing the fish from its spawning grounds. The scientists think the species was functionally extinct by 1993, meaning there weren't enough of them left to reproduce effectively. The last time scientists saw one alive was 2003.</p>
<p>The study authors searched for evidence of the fish from 2017 to 2018 by setting up nets and visiting fish markets but found no evidence that any were left alive, Phys.org explained. The researchers think it died out between 2005 and 2010 and recommend that it be considered extinct according to IUCN Red List criteria, the study said.</p><p>"There have been no successful cases of breeding the Chinese paddlefish in captivity," Wei told state broadcaster CCTV, as CNN reported. "Hence, when it died out in the wild, the species has become completely extinct."</p><p>While it is too late to save the Chinese paddlefish, the researchers hope to use the lessons from its demise to save other <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> that live in the Yangtze. The study authors could not find another 140 river species they wanted to see and think it is important to study some of them further to determine their <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> status, according to National Geographic.</p>
<p>"We must urgently act to save those species for which some chance still remains," Ivan Jaric, a study co-author and biologist at Czechia's Institute of Hydrobiology and the University of South Bohemia, told National Geographic.</p><p>The Chinese paddlefish's fate also shines a spotlight on large freshwater fish worldwide. Most big freshwater animals are threatened with extinction, University of Nevada, Reno fish biologist Zeb Hogan, who was not involved with the study, told National Geographic.</p><p>"This is the first of these very large freshwater fish to go and many are at risk—the concern is that more will go extinct, but the hope is that we can reverse their decline before it's too late," Hogan said.</p>
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The Little Goose Dam on the Snake River near Starbuck, Washington. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
By Jodi Helmer
Each year, millions of tons of grain make their way along what was once one of our wildest river systems, the Columbia-Snake River. Four dams — the Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor — erected between 1955 and 1975, ease the way for massive barges bound for ports on the West Coast, and ultimately, markets in Asia. Soybeans, wood products, mineral bulks, and automobiles also travel the river by barge. But outnumbering all other cargo is the soft white wheat grown by farmers from 11 states.
<p>Fourth-generation farmer Bryan Jones is one of those who depends on the Snake River barges to transport wheat from his farm near Colfax, Washington, to a shipping port in Portland, Oregon. Transporting crops via rail or truck, which Jones relies on to get canola, mustard, and cattle to market, are more expensive and less efficient than barge, he argues. In fact, according to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, it would require 35 train cars or 134 trucks to move the volume of wheat carried on a single barge.</p>
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Construction of the Ice Harbor Dam in 1959. US Army Corps of Engineers
<p>"When the dams went in, we closed down the rail lines, and, in doing so, barging was the only way to get our grain to market," Jones says. "We don't have the infrastructure to start using rail again, [and] we can't afford to pay another 50 cents a bushel to ship our grain."</p><p>Nevertheless, Jones acknowledges <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/columbia-snake-river-basin-salmon-are-losing-their-way" target="_blank">the steep toll the dams have taken on salmon</a> and is part of a bipartisan, multi-stakeholder coalition searching for fresh ideas to help save them — while supporting farmers, too. Its work is increasingly urgent: From populations numbering 130,000 fish in the 1950s, wild Snake River spring Chinook salmon <a href="https://www.wildsalmon.org/images/factsheets-and-reports/2017.Graphs.Snake.River.Adult.Returns.pdf" target="_blank">dropped to approximately 5,</a><a href="https://www.wildsalmon.org/images/factsheets-and-reports/2017.Graphs.Snake.River.Adult.Returns.pdf" target="_blank">800</a><a href="https://www.wildsalmon.org/images/factsheets-and-reports/2017.Graphs.Snake.River.Adult.Returns.pdf" target="_blank"> in 2017.</a> Thirteen populations are listed under the Endangered Species Act, and all four salmon and steelhead populations in the Snake River Basin are at risk of extinction, according to <a href="https://archive.fisheries.noaa.gov/wcr/publications/gis_maps/maps/salmon_steelhead/critical_habitat/wcr_salmonid_ch_esa_july2016.pdf" target="_blank">NOAA Fisheries</a>. The dwindling number of salmon is having ripple effects across the food chain. In Washington State, only 73 <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/tahlequahs-newborn-and-scarlet-gone-orca-advocates-race-save-their-kin" target="_blank">Southern Resident </a><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/tahlequahs-newborn-and-scarlet-gone-orca-advocates-race-save-their-kin" target="_blank">orcas</a> remain, due in part to the lack of Chinook salmon, their main prey. </p><p>In response, wildlife advocates are renewing calls to <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/giulia-cs-good-stefani/orca-task-force-report-call-action" target="_blank">restore the lower Snake River</a> by breaching the four dams. A <a href="https://nwenergy.org/featured/lsrdstudy/" target="_blank">recent report released by the NW Energy Coalition,</a> with support from NRDC, found that a mixed portfolio of solar, wind, energy efficiency, demand-response, and storage can replace the power the four Snake River dams contribute to the Northwest. Such a change would increase the system's reliability and cost ratepayers little to nothing. A free-flowing Snake River would also safeguard salmon from increasingly hot, even deadly, water temperatures, according to <a href="https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/our-work-saving-salmon/fighting-cold-water%20Show%20less" target="_blank">modeling done by Columbia </a><a href="https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/our-work-saving-salmon/fighting-cold-water%20Show%20less" target="_blank">Riverkeeper</a>. "We must break the political logjam around this issue. If we don't, the fish are cooked," says <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/giulia-cs-good-stefani" target="_blank">Giulia C.S. Good Stefani</a>, a senior attorney in NRDC's Nature Program.</p><p>"After looking at the science and economics, our coalition endorsed removing the four dams," says Sam Mace, inland Northwest project director of the nonprofit <a href="https://www.wildsalmon.org/about/save-our-wild-salmon-coalition.html" target="_blank">Save Our Wild Salmo</a><a href="https://www.wildsalmon.org/about/save-our-wild-salmon-coalition.html" target="_blank">n</a>. "It's not the only thing that needs to be done to restore the [salmon] runs to healthy, harvestable numbers, but it has to be the cornerstone of any plan that is going to be successful."</p>Rethinking Infrastructure
<p>The push to restore the river by removing the earthen portion of the dams has been controversial. More than half of U.S. wheat exports are shipped on the Columbia–Snake River system, making it the <a href="https://www.pnwa.net/factsheets/CSRS.pdf" target="_blank">top wheat export gateway in the nation</a> and the third largest in the world. As a result, farmers have the most to lose, according to Sam White, chief operating officer for <a href="http://www.pnw.coop/" target="_blank">Pacific Northwest Farmers </a><a href="http://www.pnw.coop/" target="_blank">Cooperative</a>.</p><p>"You've got people who say, 'Remove the dams at all costs; we want them out, we want to save our salmon,' and then you've got people who are using the river to move products saying, 'No, [the dams] are important to my livelihood,'" White says. "The closer you are to the river, the more economical it is to use the barge."</p><p>But White also estimates that just 40 percent of the region's crops are shipped via barge, down from a high of 80 percent a decade ago. Local farmers have diversified their crops, planting canola, peas, lentils and garbanzo beans, which are shipped through alternate ports reached via trucks or rail. And if rail transportation were built out further, Jones says, farmers like him might be able to abandon barge shipping altogether.</p><p>Already, there is some progress on this front, and models to follow elsewhere in the Columbia Basin, as with the McCoy grain terminal shuttle train loading facility near Oakesdale, Washington, <a href="https://dnews.com/local/new-grain-terminal-breaks-ground-in-mccoy/article_873342c6-1c7c-55b0-9cef-9450c050cc41.html" target="_blank">completed in 2013 with investment from agricultural groups</a>, including the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative. "More companies are trying to make loop rail systems where they can store 100 [railcars] until they're filled with grain and could be economically shipped down to Portland," Jones says. "But that's going to mean building new rail lines or updating older rail lines. A lot of that depends on what finances are put in to [help] companies build rail lines, build storage capacity, and all the things necessary to be able to hold and ship grain."</p><p>Jones believes that offering farmers subsidies to help them adapt to the additional expenses of shipping their grain if dams are removed would be much cheaper than maintaining aging dams. With these supports in place, more farmers would be willing to make the shift, he posits, adding, "I'm pro-dam removal but we have to keep farmers whole."</p>Spawning Solutions
<p>After decades of disagreement, there seems to be a growing awareness on both sides that finding a compromise is essential. At the annual Environmental Conference at the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University in April, participants came together to discuss the theme, "Energy, Salmon, Agriculture, and Community: Can We Come Together?"</p><p>In his <a href="https://vimeo.com/334511830" target="_blank">lunchtime address</a>, Republican congressman Mike Simpson from Idaho acknowledged that the $16 billion investment in salmon recovery from Bonneville Power Administration, the government agency responsible for delivering electricity from the dams, wasn't working. "I am going to stay alive long enough to see salmon return to healthy populations in Idaho," he went on to say. "You cannot address the salmon issue without addressing dams…they are interwoven."</p><p>Good Stefani, who was a panelist at the conference, met with Simpson this past summer. He's been working with partners around the region, meeting with leaders and decision makers to discuss ways to identify solutions that work for both farmers and fishermen, should the dams come out. "Idaho has had abysmal salmon runs, and that's a huge problem, not just for the ecosystem," she said. "It's also an economic hit to the state. Family and local businesses have paid the price — all the way up the river from Lewiston to Orofino to Riggins to Challis to Salmon."</p><p>One official from Idaho's Department of Labor estimated that salmon and steelhead fishing brings in about <a href="https://billingsgazette.com/outdoors/steelhead-fishing-closure-hammers-idaho-economy/article_481f7f8c-7a85-5a7e-bf5c-029b53b9144f.html" target="_blank">$8.61 million per month</a> to Clearwater and Nez Perce counties alone. But in September, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission had to close all steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River and severely limit fishing on the Snake and Salmon rivers on account of the struggling population. These developments have the local outdoors industry deeply concerned. Last month, a group of <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/dec/08/idaho-outfitters-discuss-grim-salmon-steelhead-out/" target="_blank">about 60 Idaho outfitters and guides met</a> in the Clearwater River Casino near Lewiston to talk about the toll of the closures on their communities.</p><p>Idaho tribes, too, have paid incalculable costs. McCoy Oatman, vice chair of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, spoke as one of the panelists at the Boise conference. He reminded participants of the importance of salmon as a food source, saying, "we're past the 11th hour" for these fish. "We as tribal people know that."</p><p>The Shoshone-Bannock tribes in eastern Idaho have long been active on the issue. They filed a federal petition in 1990 asking that the Snake River sockeye salmon be listed as endangered. Chad Colter, director of the fish and wildlife department for the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, notes that tribes harvesting Chinook in the Salmon, Grande Ronde and Imnaha rivers recently faced catch limits of three salmon, total, for their entire communities.</p><p>"The subsistence path we once followed and our reliance upon the natural riverine ecosystem for that subsistence can no longer be followed or relied upon to provide for our most basic needs of food and water," Colter says. "As a hunting people, we have gone from relying on fish runs that provided yearlong subsistence resources for our communities to ingesting merely ceremonial amounts of salmon during a short window each hunting season."</p><p>The tribes, according to Colter, want the dams on the Lower Snake River removed to ensure tribal members can harvest salmon from populations that are sustainable, resilient, and abundant.</p>
Taking the Long View
<p>In Washington State, tribes and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> groups have ample experience in advocating for dam removal — and maintaining the patience to see their efforts through. Once the decision was made <a href="https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm" target="_blank">to </a><a href="https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm" target="_blank">remove</a><a href="https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm" target="_blank"> the Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dam</a>, it took two decades before the final section of the dams were removed in 2014, but the impacts to the river ecosystem were immediate. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187742" target="_blank">Research</a> showed that habitats were restored; salmon, steelhead, and trout repopulated the river; and new species moved in.</p><p>Mace believes that sharing those success stories might lead more opponents of dam removal to reconsider their positions. "I have been trying to extend a hand and have conversations with some of the folks that have been traditionally opposed [to breaching the dams], to the communities who use the benefits of the dams, to see if we could come to some kind of understanding at least and see whether there would be a willingness to figure out some solutions," she says. "We are seeing people take more of a long view. They're realizing that the salmon crisis won't go away unless we take some bold actions."</p><p><span></span>In the meantime, Good Stefani takes heart in the dialogues being had at forums like the Boise conference. "When we talk face-to-face, we confront the uncomfortable fact that finding a solution is complicated and there is no villain here," she says. "We have to stop fighting about who has more to lose and start asking what everybody needs. We all want our kids to be able to float and fish these rivers, to know that increasingly rare kind of abundance."</p>From Your Site Articles
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Native American tribes oppose a plan to build dams on the Little Colorado River (right side) upstream of Grand Canyon National Park. National Parks Service
A proposal to dam four parts of a Colorado River tributary for hydropower has drawn significant opposition from Native American tribes, environmentalists and regulatory agencies, according to the AP.
<p>Opponents of the project claim that the four <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dams" target="_self">dams</a> would severely alter water flows in the main Colorado River in parts that run through Grand Canyon National Park and it would affect the fishery there, according to a press release from the advocacy group <a href="https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/11/conservationists-oppose-plan-build-dams-little-colorado-river-upstream-grand-canyon" target="_blank">National Parks Traveler</a>.</p><p>Phoenix-based Pumped Hydro Storage asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for preliminary permits to study the feasibility of damming the Little Colorado River, just east of Grand Canyon National Park. All four dams are squarely within the Navajo Nation's land. The company's manager, Steve Irwin, said the projects offer economic benefits to the area, including paved roads, tourism and jobs, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/4437ead4afb64bda8671e20ab7d471cf" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p>
<p>However, the project cannot move forward without the Navajo Nation's approval, which seems reluctant to greenlight the project. The Navajo Nation said the dams could negatively impact its land, water, wildlife and cultural resources, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/4437ead4afb64bda8671e20ab7d471cf" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p><p>The Hopi, Hualapai and Havasupai tribes echoed concerns about the project's impact. The Hopi people make pilgrimages and deliver offerings to the Grand Canyon area to reinforce their connection with the land.</p><p>"Any development within the area of the confluence will forever compromise the spiritual integrity of this sacred place," said Hopi Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma, as the <a href="https://azdailysun.com/news/ferc-flooded-with-opposition-to-little-colorado-river-dam-proposals/article_c75bfc4b-b6e2-528f-bf00-9b8c1c0061dd.html" target="_blank">Arizona Daily Sun</a> reported.</p><p>Haulapai Chairman, Damon Clarke, questioned why the Navajo Nation was the only one acknowledged in the permit application when the proposal affects several others.</p><p>They also worry that construction of the dams would harm sacred and historical sites.</p><p>"A project such as this would forever disturb a traditional cultural landscape that maintains historic and sacred value and that is part of the cultural identity of the Hualapai people and other neighboring tribes," said Clarke and Peter Bungart, the tribe's historic preservation officer, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/4437ead4afb64bda8671e20ab7d471cf" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p><p>"As the Little Colorado River is an integral part of this greater ecosystem, the adverse effects likely to result from the construction and operation of a dam upstream from the confluence will upend the fragile and delicate balance that has taken so much work to achieve," Clarke said in the Hualapai filing, as the <a href="https://azdailysun.com/news/ferc-flooded-with-opposition-to-little-colorado-river-dam-proposals/article_c75bfc4b-b6e2-528f-bf00-9b8c1c0061dd.html" target="_blank">Arizona Daily Sun</a> reported.</p><p>Besides the affront to sacred Native American land and water, environmental groups see a devastating impact from Pumped Hydro Storage's proposal. Save the Colorado, the Grand Canyon Trust, Sierra Club and others filed a motion last week that asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject the permit application, according to NPR-affiliate <a href="https://www.knau.org/post/environmental-groups-push-federal-officials-reject-lcr-dam-proposal" target="_blank">KNAU</a>.</p><p>The environmental groups claim that the dams will decimate the primary spawning grounds of the endangered humpback chub. The Interior Department contributed to the public comments period, saying that building the proposed dams and reservoirs could destroy two-thirds of the humpback chub's habitat, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/4437ead4afb64bda8671e20ab7d471cf" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p><p>The environmental activists also say that damming the Little Colorado River would destroy the turquoise waters that flow near where the tributary meets the Colorado River.</p><p>"It's hard to imagine a worse possible place to build new dams and reservoirs than what we've seen proposed in these projects. These new dams and reservoirs would be located about a half-mile outside Grand Canyon National Park," said Michael Hiatt, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is representing the groups, as <a href="https://www.knau.org/post/environmental-groups-push-federal-officials-reject-lcr-dam-proposal" target="_blank">KNAU</a> reported.</p>The National Parks Conservation Association also filed a motion to stop the project, citing impacts on the banks of the Colorado River, which serve not only as a critical habitat for plants, insects and other animals along the river, but the sediment also forms beaches, which are crucial to the success of the river trips industry, according to the <a href="https://azdailysun.com/news/ferc-flooded-with-opposition-to-little-colorado-river-dam-proposals/article_c75bfc4b-b6e2-528f-bf00-9b8c1c0061dd.html" target="_blank">Arizona Daily Sun.</a>
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The Lake Delhi Dam in Iowa failed in 2010. VCU Capital News Service / Josh deBerge / FEMA
At least 1,688 dams across the U.S. are in such a hazardous condition that, if they fail, could force life-threatening floods on nearby homes, businesses, infrastructure or entire communities, according to an in-depth analysis of public records conducted by the the Associated Press.
<p>Over the course of two years, the publication reviewed data and reports obtained through open record laws to find that at least 1,688 high-hazard dams rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition as of last year across 44 states and Puerto Rico. However, the AP says that the actual number is likely higher.</p><p>"Some states declined to provide condition ratings for their dams, claiming exemptions to public record requests. Others simply haven't rated all their dams due to lack of funding, staffing, or authority to do so," reports the outlet.</p><p>There are more than 90,000 dams across the nation with a large proportion more than 50 years old, according to the <a href="https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/ords/f?p=105:1::::::" target="_blank">National Inventory of Dams</a> database. Between 1850 and 2017, nearly 3,500 fatalities have occurred as a result of 64 dam failures in the U.S. – or just 3.9 percent, notes a report conducted by the <a href="http://npdp.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/reports/npdp_dam_failure_summary_compilation_v1_2018.pdf" target="_blank">National Performance of Dams Program</a> (NPDP) at Stanford University. Regulatory requirements and infrastructure investments have largely contributed to a reduction in dam failures, yet around 1,000 dams have failed in the last four decades, resulting in the deaths of 34 people, reports the AP.</p><p>"There are thousands of people in this country that are living downstream from dams that are probably considered deficient given current safety standards," Mark Ogden, Association of State Dam Safety Officials technical specialist, told the publication. An estimate suggests it may take $70 billion to bring the more than 90,000 dams up-to-date around the country.</p><p>"Most people have no clue about the vulnerabilities when they live downstream from these private dams," said Federal Emergency Management Agency former administrator Craig Fugate. "When they fail, they don't fail without warning. They just fail, and suddenly you can find yourself in a situation where you have a wall of water and debris racing toward your house with very little time, if any, to get out."</p><p>Since 1980, there has been an average of 24 dam failures each year, according to the NPDP. In the U.S., dams are rated as unsatisfactory, poor, fair, or satisfactory but vary by state and individual inspectors. A summary compiled by <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2019-11-10-associated-press-aging-dams-risk-united-states" target="_blank">Weather.com</a> found that Georgia had the most high-hazard dams in unsatisfactory or poor condition with nearly 200 across the state followed by North Carolina (168), Pennsylvania (145), Mississippi (131), Ohio (124), Indiana (65), New York (48), Massachusetts (39), Kansas (26), Colorado (24), Wyoming (18), Arizona (16) and Montana (11).</p>
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Shrimp fishing along the coast of Nayarit, Mexico. Tomas Castelazo / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
By Paula Ezcurra and Octavio Aburto
Thousands of hydroelectric dams are under construction around the world, mainly in developing countries. These enormous structures are one of the world's largest sources of renewable energy, but they also cause environmental problems.
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hydropower">Hydropower</a> dams <a href="https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Water_quality_degradation_from_hydropower" target="_blank">degrade water quality along rivers</a>. Water that flows downstream from the dams is depleted of oxygen, which harms many aquatic animals. The reservoirs above dams are susceptible to harmful algal blooms, and can leach toxic metals such as mercury from submerged soil.</p><p>We wanted to know whether dams also impact river systems farther away, at the coastlines where <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers">rivers</a> flow into the sea. So we performed a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau9875" target="_blank">natural experiment comparing four rivers</a> along Mexico's Pacific coast — two that are dammed and two that remain free-flowing. We found that damming rivers has measurable negative ecologic and economic effects on coastal regions more than 60 miles downstream.</p>
<h2>Feeding or Starving Coastlines</h2><p>We studied four river outflows along the Pacific Coast of Mexico in the states of Sinaloa and Nayarit. Two of these were from the San Pedro and Acaponeta rivers, which are relatively unrestricted, with over 75% of their flow unobstructed.</p><p>The other two outflows came from the nearby Santiago and Fuerte rivers, which have over 95% of their flow retained in reservoirs. In addition to restricting water flow, these reservoirs trap sediments — over 1 million tons per year along the two rivers combined.</p><p>In unobstructed rivers, sediment flows downstream and is eventually deposited along the coast, helping to stabilize the shoreline and sometimes even to build it up. We found that this was happening along the free-flowing Acaponeta and San Pedro rivers.</p><p>However, because the sediment from the dammed Santiago and Fuerte rivers is no longer carried downstream, wave action takes over at the coast. At the mouths of these two rivers, we found that waves were eroding up to 33 hectares of combined land — equivalent to about 62 football fields — each year, with widespread ecologic and economic effects on the surrounding regions.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzOTc3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODg3MDY2MX0.64bEwSTZiIy4D-loe57hnKHBBK37cf4WBqj3UhECKyw/img.jpg?width=980" id="65759" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="30cd5fb4eaa720d8ba3b5d0f19e30cad" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The dammed Fuerto and Santiago Rivers show greater erosion where they reach the Pacific coast than the free-flowing San Pedro and Acaponeta rivers. Images at right show coastline changes during the two periods: blue indicates land accretion, red indicates erosion.
Ezcurra et al., 2019., CC BY-NC
<h2>The Ecology of Healthy Coasts</h2><p>Our field research clearly showed that coastal instability resulting from sediment loss at the mouths of the dammed rivers was harming ecosystems along the shore. For example, we found that coastal regions downstream of free-flowing rivers had significantly more plant diversity. Many of these plants were found only in coastal areas, and therefore had high conservation value.</p><p>Coastal erosion due to lack of sediment input from the rivers also reduces critical nursery habitat, such as mangrove forest, where many commercially important fish species <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0804601105" target="_blank">spend their juvenile stage</a>. We found that fishing activity at the mouth of the free-flowing San Pedro River was much higher than around the mouth of the dammed Fuerte River. This loss of fishing potential comes at a cost of around $1.3 million every year.</p><p>Reduced sediment flow also deprives coastal estuaries of nutrients. Lucrative shrimp and oyster fisheries in the region we studied rely heavily on nutrient inputs from rivers. In the San Pedro River region, these fisheries generate around $5.8 million yearly; near the dammed rivers, they have been all but abandoned.</p><p>Coastal mangrove wetlands also <a href="https://theconversation.com/mangroves-protect-coastlines-store-carbon-and-are-expanding-with-climate-change-81445" target="_blank">protect shorelines</a> from hurricanes and tropical storms, and serve as recreational areas and conservation habitat for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a>. Knowing this, we calculated that the loss of these ecosystem services around the dammed rivers totals $3.9 million annually.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzOTc3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDgyMjkzOH0.U0KkN977V3rhqr8hdlp3bipE4sVS9CaA3EjR1wfTN30/img.jpg?width=980" id="d8f96" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fbc68acd316e52face024ee57ee5db0e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Vegetation profile of sandbars of the free-flowing San Pedro River (A) and dammed Santiago River (B), where receding black mangrove forest is being eroded away into the advancing coastline
Ezcurra et al., 2019, CC BY-NC
<p>Still another valuable function that mangrove wetlands perform is <a href="https://theconversation.com/mapping-the-worlds-blue-carbon-hot-spots-in-coastal-mangrove-forests-105793" target="_blank">storing "blue carbon"</a> in plant tissue and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil">soils</a>, reducing the effects of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>. But when coastlines recede and mangroves are destroyed, this carbon is released. We calculated that mangrove loss in our study region represented a loss of around $130,000 in annual carbon trading potential for this region.<br></p><p>Adding up all of the ecological services that coastal ecosystems provide, we estimate that the economic consequences of shoreline loss around the Santiago and Fuerte rivers related to hydroelectric damming totaled well over $10 million yearly.</p>
<h2>Letting More Sediment Flow</h2><p>Because sediments are so essential to areas around river mouths, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2013EF000184" target="_blank">reducing sediment trapping</a> behind dams could mitigate some harmful impacts on coastal areas. There are several ways to do this — notably, sediment bypassing, or diverting a portion of the sediments flowing from upriver around dams and allowing it to rejoin the river downstream.</p><p>This strategy can be included in new construction or incorporated into existing dams. In addition to reducing dams' environmental impacts, it also increases dams' service lives by reducing the rate at which their reservoirs fill up with silt.</p><p>To date, environmental impact assessments of large inland dams have often failed to properly analyze the impacts that these dams will have downriver on coastlines, estuaries, deltas and lagoons. Our study shows how important it is to fully account for dams' environmental and economic impacts along coasts and basins.</p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/177482737" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2c50981405906d681297ffd966f27ee7"></iframe>
<p>Mexico may be at a juncture in its approach to hydropower. The Mexican government recently contracted with Hydro-Quebec, the world's largest hydroelectric power producer, to <a href="https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english/hydro-quebec-boost-clean-energy-generation-mexico" target="_blank">revamp existing dams across the country</a>. And a recent study by a Mexican nongovernment organization, SuMar-Voces por la Naturaleza, <a href="https://aristeguinoticias.com/2702/mexico/hidroelectrica-las-cruces-no-es-necesaria-hoy-ni-a-futuro-revela-estudio/" target="_blank">reported</a> that a long-disputed proposal to build a new hydroelectric dam at Las Cruces is neither financially feasible nor needed to meet energy demand for the region, prompting national groups to call for the final cancellation of the project.<br></p><p>We believe that Mexico and all nations working to develop efficient, low-impact energy sources should take a holistic approach to future dam-related projects, so they can weigh their potentially harmful consequences. The coastal effects that we documented should be part of those reviews.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How Removing One Maine Dam 20 Years Ago Changed Everything <a href="https://t.co/dvauyEIxBs">https://t.co/dvauyEIxBs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Conservation?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Conservation</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dams?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Dams</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Endangeredspecies?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Endangeredspecies</a> <a href="https://t.co/Nm31Ot5X1W">pic.twitter.com/Nm31Ot5X1W</a></p>— Renewable Search (@RenewableSearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RenewableSearch/status/1095010843379490817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<em>Paula Ezcurra is a digital communications specialist with the Gulf of California Marine Program, University of California San Diego.<br/>
</em><em>Octavio Aburto is an a</em><em>ssistant professor of marine biology with the the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.<br/>
</em><em>Disclosure statement: Octavio Aburto receives funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, UC MEXUS and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Paula Ezcurra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/hydropower-dams-can-harm-coastal-areas-far-downstream-114171" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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James Suter / Black Bean Productions / WWF-US
Only a little more than one-third of the world's 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature everywhere, according to a new study by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and partners.
<p>A team of researchers from WWF, McGill University, and other institutions studied about 7.5 million miles of rivers worldwide to determine whether they're well connected. They found that only 37 percent are free-flowing — meaning they're largely unaffected by human-made changes to its flow and connectivity. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dams">Dams</a> built in the wrong place and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a> are impacting river health worldwide, and the planet's remaining free-flowing rivers are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic, the Amazon Basin and the Congo Basin.</p><h2>Vanishing Free-Flowing Rivers</h2><p>Long free-flowing rivers are vanishing. Around the world, rivers are becoming increasingly fragmented by dams and other development — such as roads or dikes — endangering freshwater ecosystems and the people and wildlife that rely on them. Free-flowing rivers transport water, nutrients and species that sustain biodiversity and benefit millions of people. To help countries and communities better protect their freshwater resources, WWF and partners came up with a technical definition of a free-flowing river and then created a first-of-its-kind, scientifically backed map — a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1111-9" target="_blank">comprehensive inventory</a> of the world's last free-flowing rivers, rivers with good connectivity and impacted rivers.</p><h2>1. Mura River — Slovenia </h2>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjA5OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDg4ODUyMH0.tQ57osOKFy7j2chqbSFwHEGwhKrelKHj2O6kTtui36o/img.png?width=980" id="0e831" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d223efc9c13170539c3d1f54552a60dd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>Called the "Amazon of Europe," the Mura River provides critical habitat for endangered and rare species such as otters, Danube salmon and black stork. After urging from WWF and others, in February 2019, the Slovenian government signed an agreement to stop all hydropower plant development that would devastate the Mura.</p><h2>2. Usumacinta River — Mexico </h2>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjEwNi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTM0MjI0N30.Xwn_KNJezgNrcyF-imYxG_pHoZe573xi7-1dfC7ZydU/img.png?width=980" id="3ab93" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6743a119c9d591b9b593a55736d233fb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>In June 2018, guided by WWF and partners, Mexico established water reserves across nearly 300 river basins, guaranteeing water supplies for 45 million people for the next 50 years. Ninety-three percent of the water in the Usumacinta — the longest, most biodiverse river in Central America and one of Mexico's — is now federally protected.<br/></p><h2>3. Bita River - Colombia </h2>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjExMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODAyOTc4OX0.x4bRFXGDcpzWl6EcBNPgWuQH0ZhkS-3hMwLe_5Js0Zs/img.png?width=980" id="a29ad" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2f6f8caa2cc98cacd3e609bc42832b98" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>The Colombian government named the Bita River basin a Ramsar site — a wetland of international importance — in June 2018, thanks in large part to the work of WWF and partners. Covering 825,000 hectares, it's the largest of the country's 11 Ramsar sites and one of the few in the world to encompass an entire free-flowing river watershed.<br/></p><h2>4. Paraguay Basin — Brazil </h2>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjExOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDQ1NzA0M30.ZCdCfWOq3Rm4goHuo_wGOHXOoUp6sX2FCmcJnPvaB-M/img.png?width=980" id="d5165" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="19979a4b80ea38807c6cdc7e41af4c17" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>More than 100 dams planned for the Upper Paraguay Basin could hurt water supplies, biodiversity and local communities. After tremendous efforts from a coalition including WWF, Brazil's National Water Agency suspended new dam development there until May 2020. But the suspension only applies to rivers under federal jurisdiction — so just 20 of the 100 dams will be suspended.<br/></p><h2>5. Luangwa River — Zambia </h2>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjEyMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODI0ODQ0NH0.qbwxjFQA2SxNC2gpb7Stp6OZRQWDxTBw3cAniJ1rC3s/img.png?width=980" id="264a8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="92b18ec870f212cd2a5d9cd86c2debae" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>The Luangwa, which is free but impacted by a dam on a nearby river, is at risk. A proposed dam at Ndevu Gorge threatens this wild waterway, which shelters abundant wildlife and human populations. In Zambia, WWF is advocating on behalf of people and nature, pushing the government to reconsider its energy plans and ensuring that local people maintain their rights to natural resources.<br/></p><h2>6. Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers — Myanmar</h2>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjEyOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzg5MDMzM30.Ug5CAhTSYvbUm3xQufTBYRhBy6eUvcT4r2LWkOiqSBE/img.png?width=980" id="fd086" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="08276a72cca42689ace8b2260f0aa483" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>In Myanmar, an in-depth Strategic Environmental Assessment recommended that the main stems of the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers — two of the last long free-flowing rivers in southeast Asia — should remain free of dams. But there is still risk, making alternative energy such as solar and wind power even more important for people, rivers, and the country's economy.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/free-flowing-rivers/" target="_blank">Learn more about free-flowing rivers and WWF's efforts to protect them</a>.</strong></p>
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<a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/free-flowing-rivers-study-full-map" target="_blank"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ1NjE0MC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjYwNDYyNX0.j-xBnMlLxfhZ1jG13pX8NceGBda4x8Ng3lw319ql0d8/img.png?width=980" id="82420" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="612e24ca6e83aaa0da8b0dacad26caeb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="" /></a>
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<h2>Mapping Downs</h2><p>Dams provide safe drinking water and electricity to millions of people. But when built in the wrong place — for instance, a river's main stem — they can impede a river's flow, causing drastic declines in biodiversity and affecting fish migration, agriculture and livelihoods. Today there are more than 60,000 major dams around the world — a number that's increasing to meet demand for hydropower. WWF is helping national governments, industries and developers consider both the long-term impacts on local people and habitats and other potential alternative options for meeting water and energy supply needs, as well as helping them identify the best opportunities for river restoration projects. Solar and wind prices are going down, making them attractive alternatives.</p>
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Irina Vodneva / iStock / Getty Images Plus
By the Numbers
5: Priority recommendations that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented since March 2018. Those actions relate to chemical standards, nonpoint water pollution and water pollution assessment. There are, however, 14 priority recommendations that the agency has not acted on. (Government Accountability Office)
<h2>News Briefs</h2><p><strong>PFAS Groundwater Cleanup Standards<br></strong></p><p>The EPA published <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-04/documents/draft_interim_recommendations_for_addressing_groundwater_contaminated_with_pfoa_and_pfos_public_comment_draft_4-24-19.508post.pdf" target="_blank">draft guidance</a> for responding to groundwater contamination from toxic PFAS <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals">chemicals</a>.</p><p>The guidance covers the two most-studied of the thousands of PFAS compounds: PFOA and PFOS. It sets contamination levels that would trigger additional investigation and establishes goals for groundwater cleanup.</p><p>The cleanup goals are based on the EPA's health advisory of 70 parts per trillion. The EPA "expects" that parties responsible for the contamination will address PFOA and PFOS levels above that. This applies in states that do not have their own cleanup standards, which can be more strict.</p><p>However, stricter state standards are no guarantee of action. The Air Force has <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/01/air-force-refuses-to-follow-michigan-pfas-law.html" target="_blank">claimed sovereign immunity</a> from Michigan's 12 parts per trillion limit where groundwater discharges to surface water.</p><p>Public comments are being accepted for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.</p><p><strong>PFAS Cleanup Request</strong></p><p>A Republican senator and two Democratic colleagues asked a watchdog agency to investigate the government's response to PFAS contamination.<br></p><p>In <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2019-04-25%20GCP%20RJ%20Sen.%20Carper%20Letter%20on%20Requesting%20PFAS%20Studies%20from%20GAO.pdf" target="_blank">a letter</a>, Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Gary Peters (D-MI) requested that the Government Accountability Office answer a number of questions, among them:</p><ul><li>The estimated cost to the federal government of cleaning up PFAS contamination in water supplies where the government is the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> provider</li><li>Actions that agencies have taken to reduce the federal government's financial liability</li><li>Research that is needed to understand human health effects</li><li>Progress the Defense Department has made in finding non-toxic alternatives for firefighting foam, which is a source of contamination</li></ul><p><strong>Hydropower Licensing Change</strong></p><p>Federal energy regulators <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2019-08239" target="_blank">finalized rules</a> that will quicken the permitting process for certain new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hydropower" target="_self">hydropower</a> projects.</p><p>Final decisions for projects will be issued no more than two years after a completed application is submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The new rules apply to existing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dams" target="_self">dams</a> that do not currently generate power and to pumped storage projects.</p><p>The change was ordered by Congress last year.</p><p><em>In context: <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2016/water-energy/u-s-hydropower-grows-going-small/" target="_blank">U.S. Hydropower Grows By Going Small</a></em></p>
<h2>Studies and Reports</h2><p><strong>California Hydraulic Fracturing Review<br></strong></p><p>The Bureau of Land Management released a supplemental review of hydraulic fracturing, or <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking/" target="_self">fracking</a>, in California.</p><p>The assessment was ordered by a U.S. district court, which said that the BLM needed to do more analysis on the environmental effects of fracking before updating the region's resource management plan. The plan, published in 2014, covers five counties in the southern Central Valley and three counties — San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura — on the coast. It was challenged by Center for Biological Diversity and Los Padres ForestWatch.</p><p>In its <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/100601/171488/208501/Bakersfield_Field_Office_Hydraulic_Fracturing_Draft_Supplemental_EIS.pdf" target="_blank">supplemental review</a>, the BLM determined that amending the plan is "not warranted." The limited amount of hydraulic fracturing expected to occur in the region "did not show a notable increase in total impacts," according to the BLM, which said that effects on surface water, groundwater use and groundwater quality from disposal of fracking waste are "negligible." Up to 40 fracked wells over 10 years are expected, according to the review.</p><p>Fracking is infrequently used in California. Annual water use for fracking in the state amounts to several hundred acre-feet, according to state officials.</p><p><strong>Financial Cost of Climate Change</strong></p><p>Democrats on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs released <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Climate%20Change%20Adaptation%20Report%20v12%20Final_COVER_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">released a report</a> on the financial costs of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>. Most of the report is sourced from previous work by federal agencies, but it also recommends that the federal government be more rigorous in detailing its climate-related spending.</p><p>Sen. Gary Peters, the committee's top Democrat, convened a <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/minority-media/peters-to-hold-field-summit-in-east-lansing-examining-rising-costs-of-climate-change-to-taxpayers" target="_blank">field hearing</a> on April 22 in East Lansing, Michigan, that covered some of the issues in the report.</p><p><strong>PFAS Health Study</strong></p><p>A federal health research agency <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2019-08150" target="_blank">published more information</a> about the structure of a study on the human health effects of PFAS compounds.</p><p>The Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry will select six sites for the study and standardize research protocols so that results can be compared across sites.</p>
<h2>On the Radar</h2><p><strong>Committee Hearings</strong></p><p><span></span>After spring break, Congress is back with a full slate of hearings:</p><ul><li>On April 29, the House Rules Committee will discuss the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-116hr9rh/pdf/BILLS-116hr9rh.pdf" target="_blank">Climate Action Now Act</a>, which requires the president to develop a plan for meeting the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement.</li><li>On April 30, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform looks at the <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/legislation/hearings/climate-change-part-ii-the-public-health-effects" target="_blank">public health effects of climate change</a>.</li><li>On May 1, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds a hearing on the <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/the-humanitarian-impact-of-eight-years-of-war-in-syria" target="_blank">humanitarian consequences of the war in Syria</a>. There are two scheduled witnesses: David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee, and Ben Stiller, the actor best known for his comedy roles who is also a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency.</li></ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Top 10 Most Contaminated Groundwater Sites Revealed in First Major Coal Ash Pollution Study <a href="https://t.co/fIxbOvUcUL">https://t.co/fIxbOvUcUL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KeepItInTheGround?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KeepItInTheGround</a></p>— Enviro Voter Project (@Enviro_Voter) <a href="https://twitter.com/Enviro_Voter/status/1102585767984021504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em><a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/water-tap/" target="_blank">Federal Water Tap</a> is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, <a href="http://twitter.com/circleofblue" target="_blank">follow</a> Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/contact/weekly-newsletter-sign-up/" target="_blank">newsletter</a>.</em><span></span></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2019/federal-water-tap/federal-water-tap-april-29-epa-releases-draft-pfas-groundwater-cleanup-guidance/" target="_blank">Circle of Blue</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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