The follow-up question that needs to be asked and answered to your "Washed away" series is: What does work to protect and restore our waterways? The answer is surprisingly simple - get out of the way and let rivers be rivers.
One form of restoration that has shown to be successful in our 30 years of work with communities across the country is removing outdated and useless dams from our rivers. This year we will reach a major milestone when the nation's thousandth dam is removed and when demolition begins on the tallest dam yet to be removed.
Old, abandoned structures like outdated dams affect rivers in many ways, by blocking migrating fish like shad and creating stagnant pools that can have significant water quality problems. They also create safety hazards for boaters and swimmers and can exacerbate flooding risks. As communities nationwide have found, removing these structures can be an extremely cost-effective, successful approach to restoring the river and bringing a variety of other benefits to the community.
Dam removals in North Carolina and across the country regularly prove successful: wildlife returns, water quality improves and paddlers and anglers flock to the new currents and rapids.
When you tear down an old dam, you remove the problem rather than just treat a symptom. There are thousands of outdated dams in North Carolina that are no longer serving a purpose. Just two have been removed in the name of stream mitigation, with millions of dollars spent on comparatively more expensive, questionable stream channel creation projects. Removals can be significantly less expensive than other restoration techniques, with an average project (10-15 ft. high dam removal) costing less than $200,000.
Now is the time for state officials to weigh the financial and ecological costs and benefits of what they've been doing versus what they could be doing. By solving the problems at the source and removing obsolete dams from our waterways, we will leave a legacy of healthy rivers to future generations.
Gerrit Jöbsis
Southeast Regional Director, American Rivers, Columbia, S.C.
The length limit on letters was waived to permit a fuller response.
