Down go the Dams
A.
- Fossil Creek was a spring-fed waterway sustaining an oasis in the middle of the Arizona desert
- Engineers dammed Fossil Creek
- 2 hydroelectric plants
- Nearly two years ago the plants were shut down, and an ex- periment began to unfold
- Decommissioning dams is becoming a regular occurrence as struc- tures age, provide an inconsequential share of a region’s power, become unsafe or too costly to repair, or as communities decide they want their rivers wild and full of fish again
- Today about 800,000 dams operate worldwide, 45,000 of which are large--that is, greater than 15 meters tall
- 1999 engineers took apart the Edwards Dam on Maine’s Kennebec River after a long battle waged by environmentalists culminated in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s denial of a renewal permit
- Water clarity and oxygen levels increase as flow comes back, and aquatic insects thrive again
- The release of sediments trapped behind a dam’s walls can choke waterways, muddying the environment and wiping out insects and algae, which are important food for fish
- The fossil creek restoration project offers a prime example of the kind of planning that could help minimize the damaging effects of dam removal
- Sediments that are stuck behind dams are crucial variables when dams are taken down
- Scientists are studying about dam removal and restoration ecology as well as watershed
B. Fossil Creek dam getting shut down caused a wide variety of experiments. Dams started to get shut down because of its age and unsafe structure becoming too expensive to repair. Today, there are 800,000 dams that are functional and 45,000 of them are large meaning that they are more than 15 meters tall. Back in 1999, the Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River that later down the line was discovered that there was a large amount of wildlife that returned to the area. The water clarity and oxygen levels increased as flow came back and aquatic insects began to thrive again. A big problem with dams is that the release of sediments that are trapped behind a dam's wall can choke waterways which muddy the environment and wipe our insects and algae which are important food for fish which would lead to the decline in fish. Dams are both good and bad for the environment.
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C. After reading this article, I am torn between 2 evils. I do believe that dams are a good source of water for the human population as well as other uses but the fact that we are destroying wildlife habitats is not sitting well with me. I believe that if we were to build dams in a more uninhabited area, there would be a better affect not just on us but for the other wildlife that we could have been destroying it's habitat. I also believe that building less dams would also be helpful. It was established within the article that building dams are very expensive and I believe that we should not waste our economy on something like dams if they are so harmful to the environment of the animals we are building the dam on top of.
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