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Golden Gate University’s Environmental Law Journal focuses on removal of dams in the West

Posted by: Maven on December 9, 2008 at 6:19 am

Thanks to Jerry for sending me this link! The entire issue of Golden Gate University’s Environmental Law Journal is dedicated to discussion of the West’s dams. The intro points out, we routinely demolish buildings that are of no use, so why not dams? Here’s a summary of the articles:

Our first article, by Russell Busch, considers the Native American perspective on dam removal. Busch is an attorney for the Lower Elwha Klallan Tribe in the State of Washington and has been involved for more than a decade in the debate over the fate of Elwha Dam (constructed in 1913) and Glines Canyon Dam (constructed in 1927) on the Elwha River in the Olympic Peninsula. FERC and Congress have approved the removal of dams, but actual removal is languishing and has been delayed
due to lack of funds.

The next piece examines O’Shaughnessy Dam on the TuolumneRiver in Yosemite National Park in California. The construction of O’Shaughnessy Dam, authorized in 1913 and completed in 1923, resulted in the inundation of Hetch Hetch Valley. The struggle of John Muir to save Hetch Hetchy Valley, which Muir considered as magnificent as Yosemite Valley, is part of the lore of the origins of the Sierra Club specifically and of the conservation movement in the American West more generally. Gerald Meral (former Deputy Director of the California Department of Water Resources, who is now affiliated with the group Restore Hetch Hetchy and currently serves on the National Wildlife Federation’s Board of Directors) moves beyond this history towards the current rationales now being advanced in support of decommissioning O’Shaughnessy Dam and restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Following Meral’s article, we shift our attention to the Colorado River storage system and Glen Canyon Dam. This article by David Wegner (former Director of the Glen Canyon Studies Project with the United States Bureau of Reclamation) addresses the past failures of the federal government in conducting a comprehensive environmental evaluation of the operation of Glen Canyon Dam as part of the larger storage system on the Colorado River (which also includes Hoover Dam and Lake Mead). Wegner discusses more recent proposals to conduct such a system-wide analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, and explains how such an analysis raises the possibility that the water storage contributions of Glen Canyon Dam could be satisfied through modification of other storage facilities along the Colorado River.

In the final piece, Jonas Minton (former Deputy Director of the California Department of Water Resources and now senior water policy advisor for the Planning and Conservation League in Sacramento) focuses on some of the current political debates involving dam removal in California, which increasingly involve flood control and water storage aspects related to climate change and global warming. In particular, Minton evaluates the statewide water-related bond measure now being promoted by California Governor Arnold Schwarznegger and its potential impacts on both existing and newly proposed on-stream dams.

The articles in this symposium edition reveal that dam removal is no longer considered a radical approach, but rather now one of the more standard options evaluated as dams age.

Read these articles and more from the Golden Gate University’s Environmental Law Journal by clicking here.

December 9, 2008 · Filed Under Storage and supply

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One Response to “Golden Gate University’s Environmental Law Journal focuses on removal of dams in the West”

  1. The Underground’s Short Casts for 2008-12-10 — The Trout Underground Fly Fishing Blog on December 11th, 2008 12:01 am

    [...] Law Journal dedicates issue to dam removal: http://aquafornia.com/archives/5865 [...]

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