Dam Removal and Stream Restoration in the Urban Environment
Geoffrey M. Goll, PE
Princeton Hydro, LLC
Trenton, New Jersey
Authors: Geoffrey M. Goll, P.E., Christiana Pollack, CERP, GISP, CFM, Jacob Dittes, P.E.
In 2021, Josh Galster of Montclair State University and George Galster of Wayne State University presented on the dearth of dam removal projects being conducted in environmental justice communities throughout the United States (1), many of which reside in urban environments. Urbanized areas that have developed around, and encroached upon mill dams and river channels in the US contain a higher proportion of encroaching infrastructure, including buildings, walls, roads, bridges, and subsurface utilities that must be engineered around the removal of a dam, increasing costs, though the benefit to the community, and access by anadromous fish would have a higher socio-economic and ecological benefit than those in less urban areas. Dams in urban areas also create a higher proportion of potential impacts due to dense populations, many times of which contain residents with environmental justice communities, via the potential failure of the dam and the backwater caused by flooding. And with climate change and increased urban populations, the impacts will only get worse. With the availability funds via the Infrastructure and Investment in Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), there is now more funding available than ever for the removal of obsolete and dangerous dams, stream daylighting, and creation of access to rivers to improve the lives the surrounding communities. In fact, many of the funding sources from the Federal and state governments are weighting ratings for projects heavily on environmental justice (EJ) communities This presentation will provide a background of approaches to addressing social, environmental, climate change, and engineering issues in urban environments and provide several examples of how to approach the protection of infrastructure, while providing community social uplift and ecological restoration.
(1) (1) Galster, J and Galster, G (2021, October 10), Dam Removals and Environmental Justice, Connects 2021, The Geological Society of America, Portland, OR, USA.
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