Hacker News Reader

Comment by bobthepanda | Hacker News Reader

> I don't necessarily think removing the dams would improve anything for anyone at this point

It's early days yet, but at least on the Elwha some of the signs are very promising: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/the-el...

View on HN

I don't always express myself clearly, but I meant that in a more holistic sense. If you were to construct a Venn diagram of remove vs stay in the case of many of the dams in the Columbia river basin, it's hard to objectively weigh the costs and benefits without a perspective. Within that perspective is an implicit number of assumptions that fashion a bias.

The problem is the Columbia is immensely powerful, and as such it's impact on our society or environment with or without the dam create such a incomprehensible web of dependencies that it predicting the outcome would be akin to seeing the future. You can't.

The Elwha is an amazing story, but that dam was in disuse long before it was dismantled. The case for removing it was one-sided.

Back in middle school we went on a trip and saw them doing the deconstruction of the elwha dam. They were around halfway done. We stood on the banks and saw the process of the reservoir turning back into a river. There was around 50 feet of sediment with old flooded trees sticking out. It is hard to overstate the effects these dams have on nature. Seeing the photos of the elwha coming back to life is always awesome :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com