Rivers turn boulders into beaches. Their flows sustain and rearrange ecosystems. They carve canyons and forge paths that link land to sea. 

In the American West, and across the world, rivers serve as arteries for society. Rivers provide communities, cities, and entire regions with navigation routes, irrigation, and drinking water. When the first western dams were built in the early 1900s, the power of rivers was corralled to control floods, produce electricity, and provide irrigation water. 

The western landscape has been transformed by large dams on the Colorado River, the Columbia and Snake Rivers, the Klamath River, and on other western streams like the Sacramento River in California, the Willamette River in Oregon, and the Elwha River in Washington.  

But as monumental and transformative as they are, dams are not eternal. As the decades pass, reservoirs behind dams become silted, concrete and steel structures deteriorate with age, and flow patterns of rivers change as seasonal rain and snow patterns shift. 

These dams, beneficial as they are, come with costs associated with them. Dams damage and decimate fish runs like those of salmon and steelhead. Reservoirs created by the dams have flooded forests, farmland, and historic cultural artifacts.

In recent years, calls to remove various dams have increased. Dams on the Elwha River in Washington, have been removed. Salmon runs have been restored. Four dams on the lower Snake River have been the target of dam removal advocates for years. And, in Northern California, dams on the Klamath River are soon to fall after years of negotiation.

The Klamath River is 257 miles long, starting in Southern Oregon and ending in Northern California. It has been the focus of a contentious battle over water and ever-decreasing resources for over a century. Now, with hopes of restoring the health of the river and saving depleting salmon populations, four of the river’s nine dams are being removed.

The dams were built in the mid-1900s for flood control and hydropower, but in subsequent decades, they caused and exacerbated environmental, cultural, and societal issues. 

The Iron Gate Dam, the first dam set to be removed, is an overspill dam, meaning that only the top layer of water is released — and as a result, this top layer of water is warmer because it receives more sunlight. 

Like a bathtub filled with dirty water, pollutants and scum tend to rise to the top of reservoirs, which then spill over the dam and travel downstream. 

Ceratonova Shasta is a parasite that affects the digestive tract of juvenile salmon, leading to intestinal perforations, infections, and then death. The disease is always naturally present in the water, but it particularly festers in warm reservoirs upriver before spilling over and traveling downstream, infecting fish all the way. 

In 1997, regional coho salmon were listed as threatened by the Endangered Species Act. In 2001 and 2002, an estimated 34,000 salmon died from a disease that incubated in warm reservoirs. In May 2021, 97% of fish caught by the Yurok tribe along the lower stretches of the Klamath River were already infected and dying.  

Removing the dams will restore natural flows and curb algae growth, as well as promote innate disease control for the salmon and restore access to spawning habitat.

Previously home to the Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dam, the Elwha River in Western Washington flows through Olympic National Park into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In the early 1900s, the dams were built to provide hydropower to the town of Port Angeles and to support the growing timber economy. However, they became an enormous detriment to the previously thriving local salmon runs. The creation of the dams also flooded land occupied by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

In 1991, in an environmental impact statement, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission declared that the complete removal of the dams was the only solution to restoring the land. Moreover, it was cheaper to buy power from the Bonneville Power Administration on the Columbia River than it was to keep producing power from the Elwha River dams. 

The Elwha dam removal process required copious research before breaking ground.  The removals were the first of their kind, and it was anyone’s guess how the river and its surrounding ecosystem would respond. 

One of the biggest questions about the removals was the effect that built-up debris would have on the ecosystem when released.  

Five years after the dam removal, the USGS reported that of the 33 million tons of sediment trapped behind the dams, eight million tons of sediment have resettled at the mouth of the river and 14 million tons have moved out into the Pacific Ocean. 

The salmon runs have begun to recover and with it, more fish return to spawn each year.

Along the Oregon-Washington border, the Snake River has been locked in a debate over dam removal for decades. The Snake River is the Columbia River’s largest tributary and before the rivers were dammed, the Columbia River watershed supported some of the world’s largest salmon runs. 

In the mid-1900s, four dams were constructed on the Snake, providing hydropower, irrigation, and shipping navigation to the region. But the dams devastated salmon populations. By 1991, the federal government listed sockeye salmon as endangered. In 1992, spring, summer, and fall Chinook were listed as threatened. 

Now, according to the Northwest Energy Coalition, salmon populations declined to 90% of historic numbers. 

Beginning in 2001, conservation groups, the Nez Perce tribe, and the State of Oregon  filed numerous lawsuits in an attempt to force the dams’ removal.

In October 2021, after 20 years of legal arguments, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon of Portland ordered a stay in litigation, pausing the lawsuit  filed against federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Fish, and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

Proceedings will be paused until July 2022 for negotiations leading to an agreement on the fate of the dams and the salmon.  

When these dams were built, they symbolized improvement and advancement for European-American society in the American West, and the numerous utilities they provide continue to prove critical. But with time, unforeseen and unconsidered consequences have become more apparent and more prevalent. Indigenous tribes are losing significant land, fish are losing habitat, and as the West continues to get drier and drier, we all are losing water. If the rivers are not running, why are we damming them? 

Compromise must be found in the future of dams. Engineering and science must progress to alleviate the strains of current hydro-project infrastructure, and with the pressures on our rivers, land, people, and wildlife mounting, we must now reckon with a reimagined West.