Ethical Issues of Dams

Some, including several federal agencies, in whizz case took this to mean that America's rivers should be dammed from one end to the other, more or slight along the lines of the Tennessee Valley Authority model. Still, no less ethically-challenged an American president than Richard Nixon signed the only Wild and scenic Rivers Act (of 1968) that the United States has ever had, mandating that at least portions of few specifically named U.S. rivers should remain free-flowing in perpetuity (Castillon 193). It is not exonerate that either president scored an ethical coup or move an ethical sin.

Among the examples to be cited here, one cannot find a hit dam, built for singular or multiple purposes, that was constructed as a weapon, to do harm or to deliver net injustice; that is, as far as one can tell, on that point make up never been unethical dams or dam builders. However, that dams have caused social upheavals and environmental disruptions at many U.S. sites and around the humankind is unarguable.

What are these upheavals? Hanes tabulated the "biotic affects" and included the following upriver impacts: inundation, leash to "destroyed" terrestrial shows and "displaced" wildlife; new and more concentrated seasonal flooding that removes both topsoil and microorganisms; water quality changes in the pool (different from the previous river) regarding temperature in

Hanes, Ted. "Chapter 7. flora and Wildlife Impact Analysis." Environmental Impact Analysis handbook. Ed. John G. Rau and David C. Wooten. reinvigorated York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. 7-1 - 7-59.

creases, atomic number 8 decreases, and sediment and nutrient entrapment; and denuded shorelines and water direct fluctuations leading to the proliferation at the edges of "weedy species" or other less-than-desirable plant outcomes.

He also named downstream impacts that include altered streamflow authorities and quality and an altered ecology, resulting in lowered species diversity, and altered and sometimes wildly fluctuated water quality with respect to nutrients, temperature, and dissolved oxygen (7-14).

Other Continents, Other Projects, Similar Impacts

Five years ago, the cut government succumbed to pressure from environmentalists and had canceled plans to build two dams on the Loire River, one of which (at Sere-de-la-Fare) had been occupied by protestors since 1989 ("France" 12). The only reported negative impact would have been the inundation of "river gorges and beauty spots" in the upstream reaches of the Loire ("France" 12).

Waterbury, John. Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 1979.

"France Shelves Dams." NewScientist 10 Aug. 1991: 12.

Slatyer, R. O., and J. A. Mabbutt. "Section 24. Hydrology of Arid and Semiarid Regions." handbook of Applied Hydrology. Ed. Ven Te Chow. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. 24-1 - 24-46.

Ciriacy-Wantrup, S. V. "Section 28. Water Policy." Handbook of Applied Hydrology. Ed. Ven Te Chow. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. 28-1 - 28-25.

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