Dam removal movement gathers steam

Faced with aging infrastructure and a need to protect imperiled species, communities are tearing down dams.

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Water spills through the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River near Port Angeles, Wash. Work to remove the Glines Canyon Dam and the Elwha River Dam will soon begin, making it the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

Ted S. Warren / AP

Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park in Washington state. There are roughly 80,000 dams in the U.S., only 3 percent of which now generate electricity. The photo was distributed by American Rivers, an environmental advocacy group.

/ American Rivers

People are rafting on a free-flowing stretch of the Elwha River in Olympic National Park in Washington state. The photo was distributed by American Rivers, an environmental advocacy group.

/ American Rivers

Visitors walk down a staircase to the power house at the Elwha Dam on the Elwha River near Port Angeles, Wash. Federal officials estimate the Elwha project would generate at least 760 jobs during its duration and 446 annual jobs in recreation and tourism once it is finished.

Ted S. Warren / AP

Visitors are dwarfed by large power generating equipment inside the power house at the Elwha Dam on the Elwha River.

Ted S. Warren / AP

Kevin Yancy works in the control room of the Elwha Dam power house on the Elwha River.

Ted S. Warren / AP

The Elwha Dam on the Elwha River near Port Angeles, Wash. Dilapidated dams represent an economic liability for owners, some of whom are opting for removal rather than spending the money to bring them up to current standards.

Ted S. Warren / AP

Fisherman Bruce McGlenn of Seattle on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park in Washington state.

Andy Maser

Water is retained behind the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River.

Ted S. Warren / AP

Dust and debris fly as explosives are set off on the Marmot Dam on the Sandy River near Sandy, Ore., in July 2007, in the first step toward its complete removal. Removal of the 47-foot tall dam made the Sandy River a free-flowing river from Mount Hood glaciers to its mouth at the Columbia River for the first time in 95 years.

Don Ryan / AP

A crew from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department load live sturgeon into a boat on the Lamoille River downstream from the Peterson Dam in Milton, Vt., in May 2002. The hydroelectric dam on the Lamoille River was to be removed in 20 years under the terms of a deal negotiated among Gov. Howard Dean's administration, Central Vermont Public Service and the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

Rob Swanson / AP

In this June 1993 photo, the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River is shown in an aerial view, in Augusta, Maine. Government leaders and conservationists gathered in June 2009 at a park along the Kennebec River to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the breaching of the dam.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

In this photo provided by the Nature Conservancy, students from the Becket Washington Elementary School, left, watch an excavator begin the demolition of the Ballou dam in Yokum Brook in December 2006 in Becket, Mass. The dam was built in the 1800s to power grist mills. It was being removed to again allow Atlantic salmon and brook trout to make the 8-mile swim upstream from the Westfield River.

Bill Toomey / AP

The S65B water control structure located on the channelized Kissimmee River about 5 miles east of Lorida, Fla., is blown up. The dam. completed in 1965, had turned the winding river into a straight channel. Before demolition, water was about 6 feet deeper upstream of the dam, now the winding river water level is the same throughout.

Pat Partington / South Florida Water Management District

Workers stand near Whittenton Dam in October 2005, in Taunton, Mass. As states take a look at dam safety, removal of some dams is being eyed as option. Whittenton Dam was replaced.

Chitose Suzuki / AP

Construction crews ready the hoe ram sitting on a barge that will be towed over to Glines Canyon Dam to start the demolition by jackhammering the cement. Biologists, tribal members and fisheries team up to release the first chinook salmon above both dams on the Elwha River. These fish will be followed using planes to see where they spawn.

Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times

This February 2010 photo shows Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue River near Gold Hill, Ore. A federal judge in July 2010 refused to extend a temporary stop-work order sought by four local people trying to prevent removal of the century-old, defunct hydroelectric dam.

Jim Craven / AP

This March 2008 picture shows the site of the Milltown Dam in Milltown, Mont. After a hundred years, the Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers are now able to flow freely without being blocked. The federal government has hauled away millions of tons of toxic sediment and removed a reservoir as part of a Superfund site cleanup in southwestern Montana's fishing country, only to encounter a hitch — the changes may impede a threatened species of trout.

James Snook / AP

Workers remove the old dam at Kohut Dam in August 2005 near Ligonier, Pa. Pennsylvania leads the nation in dam removal.

Eric Schmadel / AP

Waters from Bummet Brook flow over the Pratts Pond Dam, in Grafton, Mass., in December 2005. The dam was categorized as a high hazard dam by the state because of the potential damage to life and property should the old structure fail.

Steven Senne / AP

Sightseers line the bridge as workers remove the Pawtuxet Falls Dam at the mouth of the Pawtuxet River between Cranston, foreground, and Warwick, R.I., Aug. 9, 2011. The demolition is the largest dam removal project in state history, intended to give some fish species better access to preferred spawning areas and to reduce flood risks by lowering water levels.

Joe Giblin / AP

This August 2009 photo shows water trickling over Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River outside Hornbrook, Calif. In the first test of the landmark agreement to remove this and three other dams, PacifiCorp filed a formal complaint that it was left out of discussions over reducing river flows, which will cut power production.

Jeff Barnard / AP

The Veazie dam on the Penobscot River in Maine. The state's Department of Environmental Protection gave the Penobscot River Restoration Trust permission in 2010 to decommission the dam, a major obstacle to fish passage on the Penobscot. The photo was distributed by American Rivers, an environmental advocacy group.

/ Bridget Besaw/Penobscot River Restoration Trust/American Rivers

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Dam removal movement gathers steam

Faced with aging infrastructure and a need to protect imperiled species, communities are tearing down dams.

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