It’s Time to Start Telling the Dam Truth!

We commonly look at dams in awe, proud of human achievement and how gargantuan they are. The reality of these dams though, is that they’re awful for the environment and ecosystem. According to the Blue Heart Project, Hydropower is the only ‘renewable’ energy source sending species to extinction, displacing people globally, and contributing greatly to climate change.”

Patagonia Inc. has made a documentary about how the last wild rivers in Europe are about to undergo construction of over 3,000 small hydropower dams that will ruin these rivers in the Balkan region. These dams actually do more damage than a single large dam because of how they artificially reroute water and literally drain some rivers dry.

The Balkan rivers are gorgeous and serve the traditional community and wildlife exponentially. Eighty percent of these rivers are recorded as being in extremely good condition, and the implementation of these dams will drastically ruin that. These rivers stretch through Albania, and are the last healthy wild rivers in Europe.

How do dams do this much damage? Patagonia shows us that dams are the reason for eighty-one percent of freshwater wildlife devastation since 1970, driving some to extinction. Dams have also forced forty to eighty million people to reconfigure their living conditions due to dams.

If these 3,000 micro dams are built, they will put thirty endangered species at higher risk, and they will also apply harm to 69 fish species. 1,500 of these dams are scheduled to be built even in protected National Parks according to Patagonia. This also puts the Balkan lynx in danger, a wildcat that is endangered, and adorable.

Possibly the worst part about this situation is that ninety-one percent of these dams are 10MW capacity. This is the amount of energy they’ll be able to store. Dams of this small size undergo no environmental regulations.

The Oroville Dam is a prime example of how dams, big or small are bad for the environment and can damage the ecosystem. This dam is not specifically meant for hydropower like the ones in Europe will be, but it does use hydroelectric power generation. The worst of it however, is from the 2017 dam break that killed many people and forced 180,000 people out of their homes. The dam also did a large amount of damage to the ecosystem and fish in the Feather River, efforts are still being held to mitigate the damage.