16 Replies to “Civilizations Are Not Murdered”

  2. “To me, it’s like a grandfather,” said Larry Moran, project superintendent for JR Merit, lead contractor on the job. “It’s not an evil, it served a purpose well, and now it’s time to lay it to rest.”
    Um, does Larry’s grandad now how he feels about this sort of thing?

  3. The Hover dam will be soon rubble as well. America, Chugging along into the third world.
    While living in denial.

  4. This particular case looks like an asset management decision to me. I do see people leaping on the bandwagon to take credit for the decision, but it was a business case.
    The decision driver is more stringent environmental standards leading to higher operating costs, but the decision to remove the dam was made by the owner of the asset as a straightforward ROI calculation.
    The trade-off is between people who are willing to pay more for electricity in order to enjoy a more natural setting and those who don’t use the natural setting and want inexpensive electricity. It is a collective decision affecting private assets that have a public benefit and cost tradeoff. Not simple, but certainly doable with existing civic institutions.
    It is also quite possible that it would have been cheaper to demolish the dam than refurbish it, even without higher environmental standards. The company then removes the (no longer) asset and takes a bit of free community goodwill while waving a green banner.

  5. Now, onto the topic.
    Given the new rules that the utilities have to deal with, thanks to omnipotent gubmint, it may be cost prohibitive to re-license the dam. But, power is to be replaced by wind? Gimme a break. This will be another case of remove a dam, burn more coal, but its someone elses backyard, so that’s ok.
    Then, when the dam “gets blowed up real good”, there will be vast environmental damage from the flood of 150′ of head on the dam. Spawning grounds? Goodbye, swept away. And the base of the reservoir will also be a mudpit.
    Better off to keep the dam and refurbish it. All dams need maintenance over time, thanks to settlement, age, etc.

  6. The environmentalists are whooses of the first degree.
    Join me in the uber-green call for single day – just one – where we shut down the grid in North America. Just a single day.
    Except for the windmills and solar panels, of course. They can remain on.
    What do you say my green comrades?

  7. Blow up a dam and save a fish for some aboriginal dude to catch.
    Also wait around for next spring runoff and see who complains of flooding in a floodplain that has been controlled by the damn dam for a hundred years.

  8. Well, now there will be a nice open valley for the wind to whistle down so they can install a few hundred bird-whackers (Osprey beware). Of course, the gazillion tons of concrete they’ll have to pour into the salmon nests to mount the towers with be a tad counter-productive but at least the folks will have some clean, fresh, 85 cent per KW electricity.

  9. The only ROI consideration in this case regarded the federal government’s requirement (extortion) of a $100M re-licensing scheme to add fish ladders and other environmentally sensitive winks and kisses to a 14mW power plant that could be demolished for $33M … otherwise the plant could have continued operation at a profit. The Condit Dam did have fish ladders 100 years ago, however they were destroyed by Gaia Herself during early years of operation.
    O’ what a joyous sight, when elderly fish that haven’t knocked fins in their original spawning ground for almost 100 years make their triumphal return.

  10. In 50 years every Chinese family is going to own an American cooly. How stupid can one country be in its quest for oblivion.

  11. The last half just snaps from a news article to vapid prose romanticizing the salmon spawn. Are these written by adults?

  12. On of the most disturbingly vapid pieces of trash writing ever …. this Mapes is perfect example of what is wrong with the business of journalism.
    Her email addy should be changed to IFool@seattletimes dot com.
    Aside from that … demolishing old dams is not inherently wrong.
    So the only thing to be said is …. “Where’s your back up plan?”
    Just wait till the foks in the north west start to feel the energy pinch …. then the enviro-whacks will get kicked to the curb and Mapes can write grieving essays about how her friends have been so wronged.

  13. On the bright side, these will be excellent sites for newer, higher, better hydro dams after we finally handle the current hippie infestation in the US federal government.
    Drill baby drill!

  14. “Her tail was beaten white, with the pigment and flesh worn to the bones in the effort of digging her nest in the gravel.”
    This is fish abuse. We can not justify such suffering merely in order to provide fertilizer to the whitewater kayaker habitat. Aboriginals can eat tofu.

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