BRINGING DOWN OUR DAMS: TRENDS IN AMERICAN DAM REMOVAL RATIONALES<sup>1</sup>

Pohl, Molly M.

doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.2002.tb04361.x

Cited by 112 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…About 900 dams nationwide have been removed since 1912, with the pace accelerating to 20 to 64 removals a year between (American Rivers, 2010. The removal of Marmot Dam on the Sandy River, Oregon, exemplifies how dam removal is becoming an important means of restoring rivers and their dependent ecological systems (Pohl, 2002;Doyle and others, 2003b,c;O'Connor and others, 2008).…”

Section: ; Us Army Corps Of Engineers 2009)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomorphic response of the Sandy River, Oregon, to removal of Marmot Dam

Major¹,

O'Connor²,

Podolak³

et al. 2012

Professional Paper

115

177

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This report and any updates to it are available online at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1792/ For more information on the USGS-the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment-visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1-888-ASK-USGS For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Suggested citation: Major, J.J., O'Connor, J.E., Podolak, C.J., Keith, M.K., Grant, G.E., Spicer, K.R., Pittman, S., Bragg, H.M., Wallick, J.R., Tanner, D.Q., Rhode, A., and Wilcock, P.R., 2012, Geomorphic response of the Sandy River, Oregon, to removal of Marmot Dam: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1792, 64 p.Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report. Altitude, as used in this report, refers to distance above the vertical datum.Concentrations of suspended sediment in water are given in milligrams per liter (mg/L). MultiplyBy To obtain Mass AbstractThe October 2007 breaching of a temporary cofferdam constructed during removal of the 15-meter (m)-tall Marmot Dam on the Sandy River, Oregon, triggered a rapid sequence of fluvial responses as ~730,000 cubic meters (m 3 ) of sand and gravel filling the former reservoir became available to a high-gradient river. Using direct measurements of sediment transport, photogrammetry, airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) surveys, and, between transport events, repeat ground surveys of the reservoir reach and channel downstream, we monitored the erosion, transport, and deposition of this sediment in the hours, days, and months following breaching of the cofferdam.Rapid erosion of reservoir sediment led to exceptional suspended-sediment and bedload-sediment transport rates near the dam site, as well as to elevated transport rates at downstream measurement sites in the weeks and months after breaching. Measurements of sediment transport 0.4 kilometers (km) downstream of the dam site during and following breaching show a spike in the transport of fine suspended sediment within minutes after breaching, followed by high rates of suspended-load and bedload transport of sand. Significant transport of gravel bedload past the measurement site did not begin until 18 to 20 hours after breaching. For at least 7 months after breaching, bedload transport rates just below the dam site during high flows remained as much as 10 times above rates measured upstream of the dam site and farther downstream.

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Section: ; Us Army Corps Of Engineers 2009)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomorphic response of the Sandy River, Oregon, to removal of Marmot Dam

Major¹,

O'Connor²,

Podolak³

et al. 2012

Professional Paper

115

177

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Dam removal is often discussed as a restoration strategy to alleviate the negative impacts associated with on-stream reservoirs [82][83][84][85]. Removing a dam can have especially positive implications for riverine ecologic health [40].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Reservoir Distribution, Rate of Construction, and Uses in the Upper and Middle Chattahoochee Basins of the Georgia Piedmont, USA, 1950–2010

Ignatius

Jones

2014

IJGI

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Construction of small reservoirs affects ecosystem processes in numerous ways including fragmenting stream habitat, altering hydrology, and modifying water chemistry. While the upper and middle Chattahoochee River basins within the Southeastern United States Piedmont contain few natural lakes, they have a high density of small reservoirs (more than 7500 small reservoirs in the nearly 12,000 km 2 basin). Policymakers and water managers in the region have little information about small reservoir distribution, uses, or the cumulative inundation of land cover caused by small reservoir construction. Examination of aerial photography reveals the spatiotemporal patterns and extent of small reservoir construction from 1950 to 2010. Over that 60 year timeframe, the area inundated by water increased nearly six fold (from 19 reservoirs covering 0.16% of the study area in 1950 to 329 reservoirs covering 0.95% of the study area in 2010). While agricultural practices were associated with reservoir creation from 1950 to 1970, the highest rates of reservoir construction occurred during subsequent suburban development between 1980 and 1990. Land cover adjacent to individual reservoirs transitioned over time through agricultural abandonment, land reforestation, and conversion to development during suburban expansion. The prolific rate of ongoing small reservoir creation, particularly in newly urbanizing regions and developing counties, necessitates additional attention from watershed managers and continued scientific research into cumulative environmental impacts at the watershed scale.

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“…Dams that are no longer economically viable or dams that have negative environmental effects will be candidates for potential removal. Over the last two decades approximately 500 dams have been removed in the United States (Pohl 2002). Most of these have been small dams (<2 m height) and only a few have been systematically evaluated for ecological responses (Stanley and Doyle 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%