MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA — A $50 million fund will be devoted to help communities in the U.S. to remove old and unneeded dams in an attempt to restore rivers.
The funding was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to establish a 10 year program in order to remove obsolete dams and restore rivers across the West.
“The Open Rivers Fund honors this legacy by boosting local efforts to remove aged dams that have broad support in the community. The safety, economic, and environmental benefits of removing these dams will be immediate and long-term,” Hewlett Foundation president Larry Kramer said in a press release.
Three projects will be benefited by the funding, including the removal of the Matilija Dam in Ventura, California; a series of dams in Oregon’s Rogue River basin; and the Nelson Dam in Yakima River watershed in Washington.
According to the New York Times, of the more than 80,000 dams in the U.S., more than 26,000 pose high safety hazards, the majority does not serve any real purpose while only about 1,750 produce hydropower.
These deadbeat dams block the natural migration and spawning of some fish, threatening the ecosystem. They also block the movements of nutrients and sediment in the river, which deprives downstream estuaries of nutrient-rich water. The reduced water flow raises the temperature and results in algae bloom.
