The Trouble With Dams

Rober Devine wrote this piece that could have come form the script of DamNation back in 1995.

Some 100,000 dams regulate America's rivers and creeks, often at the expense of ecosystems--and of taxpayers, who are subsidizing handouts to a large number of farmers, frloodplain occupants, hydro-electricity users, and river-transportation interests.

LINK (via:The Atlantic)

Site C dam approved by B.C. government

British Columbia did not get the memo that the era of giant dam building is over.

B.C. has approved the $8.8 billion Site C dam — a massive hydroelectric project that would flood a large area of the Peace River Valley in northeastern B.C.

LINK (via: CBC)

Opponents see the project as a way to enable the development of multiple BC LNG projects.

“Last month, three LNG projects were approved by the BC Government in our watershed and now Site C Dam in the Peace. All this to support an industry that would frack the hell out of the Northeast, dam some of the greatest farmland in the province, ram pipelines through northwest BC and put terminals on our coast that will destroy wild salmon populations. What’s in it for British Columbians?  A foreign workforce?" said Shannon McPhail, with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition on Tuesday.

Dam Projects Ignite a Legal Battle Over Mekong River’s Future

While the era of giant dam building may very well be over here in the states it's very much alive and well in Southeast Asia.

LINK (via: National Geographic)

A Dam Shame

Let me get this straight: you want to flood a pristine valley in Canada to generate power so you can ship natural gas overseas to keep Asia’s lights on? 

Site C is a hydroelectric dam site and manmade reservoir project proposed by BC Hydro. If it is built, it will be the fourth dam to strain the Peace River and all that relies so heavily upon it.

LINK (via:onearth)

DamNation – Susitna: Alaska’s Mega Dam(n) Proposal

Photo: Travis Rummel

A must read from Travis Rummel and Matt Stoecker who floated the Sustina to see first hand what's at stake if a proposed mega dam on the river ever comes to fruition.

LINK (via: The Cleanest Line)

The Susitna River Dam - A bad idea rises in Alaska

While the rest of the world is doing their best to remove aging dams, the State of Alaska is proposing to build a giant new one on Alaska's Sustina River.

The State of Alaska is pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to license a 735-foot high dam and hydroelectric plant on the Susitna (at a projected cost of $5.2 billion), which would drastically alter the river’s physical characteristics and create a 42-mile long, up to 5-mile wide reservoir that would flood approximately 25,000 acres of pristine wilderness, an area larger than the island of Manhattan.

LINK (via: The NRDC)