There are approximately 80,000 dams in the United States - among them is the Hoover Dam in Nevada. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
There’s been a lot of talk about climate change in Washington D.C. lately. Whether it’s a new law, or tighter regulations, the cost of burning dirty fossil fuels for energy is likely to go up. As Mark Brush reports that has some people taking a second look at old dams:
Transcript
There’s been a lot of talk about climate change in Washington D.C. lately. Whether it’s a new law, or tighter regulations, the cost of burning dirty fossil fuels for energy is likely to go up. As Mark Brush reports that has some people taking a second look at old dams:
There are about 80,000 dams around the country. A lot of them were built a long time ago. And, as they get old, communities have to decide whether to spruce them up – or tear them down.
But some experts are saying these smaller, old dams might be worth keeping.
Ron Corso is with the United States Society on Dams.
“There’s enough sites out there to dramatically increase the amount of hydropower that exists today, and the FERC has more applications in front of it than it has in twenty years.”
The FERC is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It’s the government agency that oversees dams.
Corso says communities are weighing the economic costs before repairing or retro-fitting an old dam.
And if the dam is small – say under 20 feet tall – Corso says it often is not worth the cost.
For The Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.