Last week Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that the U.S. has the potential to add more than 65.5 GW of new hydropower to the nation's energy portfolio by damming over 3 million rivers and streams across the country by 2030. Moniz's comments came as the Energy Department released a report at the National Hydropower Association's annual conference touting the "Major Potential to Grow Clean, Sustainable U.S. Hydropower." [http://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-dept-report-finds-major-potential-grow-clean-sustainable-us-hydropower] The report, entitled "New Stream-reach Development: A Comprehensive Assessment of Hydropower Energy Potential in the United States," finds that the greatest potential exists in the Pacific Northwest, Missouri River Basin, California and other western states.
Although the report acknowledges that "not all areas identified…will be practical or feasible to develop for various reasons," hydropower developers are heeding this as a rallying cry to meet the 65.5 GW goal by 2030. The report comes as part of the Energy Department's "New Vision for United States Hydropower," which it is pursuing in partnership with the National Hydropower Association. If the vision is realized, it could spell the end of rivers throughout the country.
If fully developed, these hydropower projects would destroy over 1,700 whitewater runs across the country including:
– Middlebury, Mongaup and Deerfield Rivers, and Forks of the Penobscot in New England;
– Tuckasegee, Watauga and Daddy's Creek in the Southeast;
– Gooney Run and Maury in Virginia;
– Madison, Smith and Yellowstone Rivers in the Northern Rockies;
– Wenatchee and Clackamas Rivers in the Pacific Northwest;
– Smith, Feather, and Forks of the American in California.
These whitewater gems, and so many more targeted within the report, are the backbone of local and regional recreation economies across the country.
The Energy Department's list doesn't leave anything out. It includes numerous reaches where millions of dollars have been invested by federal, state and local governments and local communities in recent years to remove dams, including the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers in Maine and the Rogue River in Oregon. It also includes reaches that are protected from hydropower development by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Program like the Deschutes and South Fork Skykomish Rivers. The report notes that energy production could also increase if potential hydropower projects within National Parks and Wilderness Areas are developed, including Yosemite Creek in Yosemite National Park, several rivers in Olympic National Park, and on Wild and Scenic Rivers like the Chetco and John Day in Oregon, the Chattooga in the Southeast, the Middle Fork Flathead in Montana. They even target some of the original Wild and Scenic Rivers, like the Lochsa in Idaho and the Middle Fork Feather in California.
The Energy Department states that this report builds on the commitment to President Obama's "all-of-the-above" energy strategy, however American Whitewater strongly disagrees that "dam every river" is an appropriate vision. "Damming every potential river for hydropower makes as much sense as it would to cover every available piece of land with solar panels," said California Stewardship Director Dave Steindorf. "The goal of reaching 65.5 GW is not feasible, and it does not reflect the value that the public places on protecting rivers for recreation, water quality, and habitat." While hydropower makes up seven percent of total U.S. electricity generation, in the continuous U.S., less than two percent of all rivers remain freely-flowing and relatively undeveloped. Damming the last freely-flowing rivers is not the answer to the nation's question of how to develop a more sustainable and carbon-neutral energy future.