Daaam Girl
This week’s article is another Neature Feature that will translate a scientific article into lay terms. Without wasting time, let’s get this dam show on the road.
From The Future Role of Dams in the United States of America by Ho et al.
Science articles always have an “abstract” at the beginning, which is a one-paragraph summary of what the article will discuss. It clues the reader in to the main gist of the article so they can determine whether or not they want to read the whole thing. This article has an abstract and then a “plain language summary” which I found to be a nice addition. It says that water storage has been important for all of human history because it helps us have a dependable water source instead of relying on unpredictable sources like rain. It also says that water storage is going to become more important in the future because there is going to be an even bigger difference between the supply and demand for water in America for drinking, washing, farming, and factories. “This indicates the need for more storage or new dams to meet human and ecological needs”. In addition to water storage, dams also have other uses like flood protection and the production of hydropower. So, if dams are so important and we may need more in the future, one might think the dams we already have are are well taken care of. Think again. When our current dams were built (in the mid-1900s), people didn’t consider the environmental impact of dams or really plan how to maintain and care for them into the future. That means that some of our dams might actually be harming the environment right now, and what’s more is they might be crumbling from neglect and poor planning. That’s what this article is all about. It argues that we need “a formal analysis of the role dams play in the future of the USA’s water landscape”. No more of this quick-fix/poorly planned dam situation.
Watch footage from the Teton Dam collapse. Not only was there immediate danger as homes were washed away and people drowned, but the collapse also affected drinking water availability, electricity, and roads. Imagine something like this happening in your city.
There is a lot of debate out there over dams. Some people say that dams have been failures in the past in terms of the amount of taxpayer money they take to build and their potentially negative environmental impacts. Other people say that dams are more important now than they’ve ever been and we should be building more. Who is right? Let’s look at some facts and figures. The Army Corps of Engineers says that about 20% of dams in America are used for flood prevention and control. In fact, dams have saved America well over $10 billion in flood damages that would have occurred without them! That seems to add a tick mark for dam pros. Recently-built dams have had more stringent environmental considerations, so some negative effects have been mitigated (lessened) and it can be said that dams have changed landscapes for the better. Another mark for pros. If we didn’t have dams, you could argue that we would be worse-off environmentally because we would have to make up for the lost hydropower by burning fossil fuels. So far in the paper, the only big con is that dams fill up with sediments that usually flow along with rivers. Eventually, so much sediment gets stopped up at the dam that it has to all be scooped out because it’s taking up the space where water is supposed to go. This is difficult and expensive to do, but it’s just part of the package. On our list of pros and cons, dams are looking pretty good right now.
Now that the paper has weighed a few pros and cons, it starts ringing some alarm bells. It says that a whopping 97% (!!) of dams in America are not owned by the federal government, which means that they don’t have as many regulations. Those 97% of dams are not required to think about the big picture, like: How are we going to fund and take care of dams 50 years in the future? What role should dams play as water demand goes up and supply goes down? How does climate change affect dams? These questions are hugely important, but not very many people have been working on answering them.
Next, the article states that most of the dams in America are close to or have already passed their planned expiration date. Now it’s time to either rebuild, renovate, or remove them before they crumble and unleash floods like in the video above. But which option is best? And who should get to decide? If you’re thinking “man, this paper is asking a ton of questions and not really giving satisfying answers,” then congratulations, you get it! That’s exactly the point. It’s past time to make some major decisions, but there are too many questions and not enough answers. When most of America’s dams were built, the builders only considered the short-term. No one planned for the cost or logistics of maintenance and decommissioning when the dam would eventually need to be replaced or removed. That short-sightedness has put us in a really sticky spot. I think the report sums up this point really well:
We need to consider “potential dam failure risks and cascading impacts on critical infrastructure (e.g., other dams, energy, transportation, water treatment), and how extreme rainfall and regional flooding could act as a failure trigger. Quantifying these risks would provide a basis for prioritizing dam inspections, warning systems, restoration, recovery, and removal plans.”
Dam! These problems are urgent, and we don’t even have a system in place to determine which dams to start with. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave dams in America a “D” grade for their lack of maintenance. There’s simply not enough funding or manpower currently available to maintain dams. On average, every state’s dam safety inspector is personally responsible for inspecting over 200 dams. In some states, dams are only required to be inspected every 10 years; in other states, there are no required qualifications for someone to become a dam inspector. In Texas, citizens can only get limited information about the results of dams because of “homeland security concerns.” None of these facts bode well.
“In 2015, a single storm event in South Carolina triggered the failure of over 30 dams. Such an event may be a precursor of future flood destruction under both a changing climate and aging dam infrastructure.”
This article goes on to talk about some more logistical concerns and ideological debates concerning dams, but I’ve pulled what I feel are the main takeaways. If your interest is piqued, I encourage you to head over to this link and read the original article, or continue to research the current state of dams! It may not be the sexiest topic, but hopefully after today you understand why dams have an important role to play in America’s future, and why we need more eyes on the problem if we’re going to find good solutions.
As a bonus for making it all the way through this Neature Feature, enjoy one of my old slides from when I gave a presentation on this very article in college.
