

	Press Releases / In the Media / Newsletters / Speeches / Events / Calendar / Non-English


	WCD in the Media [Media Items Contents]
Home


Related:

	Archive of WCD Press Releases

	Archive of WCD Media Coverage

International Report Reveals Flaws In United States Regulation of Dams

Environmental News Network (ENN) - 20 November 2000

A report issued by the World Commission on Dams released in the United States today calls for a change in thinking about existing dams and improving their economic, environmental and social performance. The Commission proposes that constructed dams are changeable, and should be subject to periodic reviews to get the greatest benefits for current social, economic and environmental conditions. The United States owns and operates 1932 dams across the nation, but once they are constructed, requires no further comprehensive review. American conservation organizations today called on the new President and Congress to establish a procedure for periodically reassessing the impacts and benefits of federally owned dams.

"Federal taxpayers have an investment worth hundreds of billions of dollars in federal dams and water projects," said Steve Malloch of Trout Unlimited. "No rational investor would make that kind of investment and then forget to manage it. We should bring these dams into line with current needs."

On November 16, 2000, the World Commission on Dams - a multi-stakeholder international commission sponsored by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN)-- released an appraisal of the promise and delivery of large dams worldwide. The report found, in many cases, the economic benefits of dams are much oversold, and the environmental and social costs much underestimated. While the Commission's report focuses primarily on new dam construction, it also addresses the ongoing impacts of existing dams, and recommends maximizing benefits from existing dams. Foremost of its recommendations for existing dams is periodic comprehensive reevaluation of the facilities and performance of dams, and more frequent (every 5 to 10 years), evaluation of dam operations.

"The US has been a world leader in building dams," said Margaret Bowman of American Rivers. "It is time that we become world leaders in managing them."

In a letter to the next President of the United States and new Congress, a coalition of conservation groups wrote, "If we now examined those almost two thousand major federal dams, we would be able to find many ways to improve their performance. In many cases, troublesome environmental impacts caused by dams and water projects can be mitigated simply by changing operations - changing the timing of water releases or using modern hydrological analysis to optimize benefits. In some cases modernizing facilities - installing efficient turbines and generators, eliminating wasted water and power, or installing fish ladders -- can increase benefits. In a small number of cases those impacts are simply the price paid for the benefits and we either accept the cost or remove the dam."

"Most of the federal dams were built decades, even a century, ago," said Malloch. "Their management and facilities may not have changed since the day they were built and are now obsolete or woefully incomplete."

Useful web resources include www.dams.org (World Commission on Dams, includes the report); www.tu.org or www.amrivers.org (copy of the letter and additional information); www.fema.gov/mit/damsafe/inventory.htm (National Inventory of Dams, useful for locating federal dams in a state); http://dataweb.usbr.gov/
Bureau of Reclamation, federal dams in the western US); www.usace.army.mil(US Corps of Engineers).

Signing the letter were 35 conservation, environmental and recreation organizations including Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Defenders of Wildlife, and American Whitewater.

Trout Unlimited is the nation's leading conservation organization, with 125,000 members dedicated to the conservation, protection, and restoration of North America's trout and salmon fisheries.

American Rivers mission is to protect and restore America's river systems and to foster a river stewardship ethic.

Home / Search / Site Map / Contact Us / Links