LARGE DAMS PANEL PRESENTATION

TEAM A GEOGRAPHY 412

OCTOBER 1, 2018

1

INTRODUCTION TO LARGE DAMS

ANISHA NAVARATNAM

Large Dam Classification:

“A large dam is a dam with a height of 15 m or more from the foundation. If dams are between 5-15 m high and

have a reservoir volume of 3 million cubic meters, they are also classified as large dams”

• 57,000 large dams worldwide in 2017 (ICOLD, 2017)

• Mega-dam: crest height over 150 meters from its foundation

Types of Large Dams: Reservoir Type Storage Projects, Run-of-River Dams (limited daily pondage)

Global Distribution of Dams:

• Top three producers with 92% of the world’s

largest dams: China, India, USA

• Many dams were constructed between

1950-1970 during which period there was an

increase in dam technology

Source: International Commission on Large Dams.

2017

World Commission of Dams:

• Established between 1997 – 2001 to review and form international dam construction governance and

standard (IRO, 2017)

• Tri-sectoral network formed by representatives from governments, civil societies and businesses (IRO, 2017)

• Objectives:

o To review the effectiveness of large dams and assess alternatives for water resources and energy

development

o To develop international guidelines and standards for the planning, design, appraisal, construction,

operation, monitoring and decommissioning of dams.

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DAM EVOLUTION

SPENCER CAIN

• Dams are not geographically specific and can service societal needs in many ways including: (1) access to safe and clean drinking water; (2) reliable water source for agriculture; (3) flood control/management; (4) renewable energy source

• Dam evolution has been focused on increasing performance and efficiency. Two performance indicators include schedule and budget (UNEP, 2000)

Water Security: “the reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production” (Grey et al. 2007).

Food System: A food system involves all processes and infrastructure in feeding a population. (Ericksen, 2007)

Irrigation Dams: water supply in regional irrigation systems

• Performance Indicators: (1) physical performance on water delivery, area irrigated and cropping intensity; (2) cropping patterns and yields, as well as the value of production; (3) net financial and economic benefits.

• Disadvantages: (1) often fail to recover the costs of construction and are less profitable overall; (2) secondary benefits, such as water access, are rarely used as specific targets.

Hydroelectric Dams: deliver electric power have on average met expectations for the delivery of power

• Hydropower dam evolution has focused on modifications to intake and outtake outlets to maximize electricity generated.

• Disadvantages: (1) on average, almost half of the sample exceeded the set targets for power generation – with about 15% exceeding targets by a significant amount (UNEP, 2000); (2) higher-than-expected upstream irrigation abstractions and lower than-predicted natural stream flows can reduce power yielded ; (3) normal variations in weather and river flows dictate that virtually all-hydroelectric projects will have year-to-year fluctuations in output (UNEP, 2000)

Water Supply Dams: focus on establishing a permanent source of water (reservoirs) to meet water demand

• A reservoir is a contained or enlarged natural, artificial lake, storage pond or impoundment created using a dam or lock to store water.

• Water supply dams are cheap because bounded by natural topography and located at the narrowest point downstream of the basin to reduce construction costs and for this points’ increased erosion strength.

• Disadvantages: (1) traditionally water supply dams have fallen short of intended timing and targets for bulk water delivery and have exhibited poor financial cost recovery and economic performance (UNEP, 2000); (2) at current rates, water fees are rarely sufficient to recover both capital and recurrent costs for water supply systems in many developing countries

Flood Control Dams: used historically to manage water surges and mitigate flows from damaging settlements

• Water is stored behind dam and released slowly over time • Flood control dam evolution has emphasized a growing concern over the cost and effectiveness of large

dams and related structural measures as long-term responses to floods • Disadvantages: (1) loss of beneficial aspects of natural flooding (i.e. floodplain fertility); (2) dam failure

results in extreme flooding; (3) downstream damage is extreme, often downstream communities must implement an increased protection levels which sometimes prove inadequate (UNEP, 2000)

3

DISPLACEMENT

ANISHA NAVARATNAM

Dam Induced Displacement: displacement of humans and animals caused by reservoir flooding and dam and infrastructure construction

Social Displacement:

• Estimated by 2000, 40 million people were displaced by large dams and their infrastructure • Often densely populated countries have the highest displacement rates as water is needed to meet

populations’ needs • Site C – Cache Creek / Bear Flats: BC Hydro evaluated two options; Peace Valley Landowner’s Association

formed oppose Site C; families who had been living in the Peace Region since the early 1900’s who had been displaced by the Bennett Dam will be relocated again. Their lifestyles depend on the land.

• Barra Grande Land, Brazil: site was favourable for steep slopes which were also favourable for agriculture; displacement of over 430 families; inadequately compensated as loss of land around dam site drove up regions’ agricultural prices (Rondinelli-Roquette, 2017)

Environmental Displacement:

• Reservoir flooding results in destruction of terrestrial ecosystems • Dam wall may result in ecosystem fragmentation and block fish migrations from spawning habitat

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SOCIAL IMPACTS

AMBER POMEROY

Environmental Justice: exposures to pollution and other environmental risks are unequally distributed by race and class (Mohai, 2009) Othering: Othering, is portraying the other essentially different, and translating this difference to inferiority (Krumer-Nevo and Sidi, 2012). Perspectives: Political and economic goals are tied to social goals. Therefore, the interests of local communities, the global community and economic interests are intertwined. Arguments: Outlined in the World Commission on Dams (UNEP, 2000) Environmental Justice Case studies indicate that vulnerable groups and future generations are likely to bear a disproportionate share of the social and environmental costs of large dam projects without gaining a commensurate share of the economic benefits. Costs and Benefits There is a problem with simply weighing positives and negatives of dam construction. As broader costs and benefits including economic, environmental and social considerations fall unequally within society. Alternatives Due to reasons including the lack of equity in the distribution of benefits, alternatives are considered to meet water and energy development needs. Alternatives such as reducing consumption are being considered viable options. Main Social Terms: Resettlement Issues “Cash compensation is a principal vehicle for delivering resettlement benefits, but it has often been delayed and, even when paid on time, has usually failed to replace lost livelihoods” (UNEP, 2000). Initial Plans “Dams are often discussed years before project development it seriously considered and once a site is identified a form of ‘planning blight’ can take place, making governments, businesses, farmers and others reluctant to undertake further productive investments in areas that subsequently might be flooded. Communities can live for decades starved of development and welfare investments” (UNEP, 2000) Jobs/Boom Dams construction can have economic benefits such as increasing tourism or ship navigation (My Yangtze Cruise, 2010). There can also be an increase in jobs. However, while “new jobs are created both for skilled and unskilled workers during the construction phase…the beneficial effect on local communities is often transient due to the short-lived, pulse impact of the construction economy and dam construction sites” (UNEP, 2000). This can also cause psychological stress and health problems on the local community. Cultural/Traditional Loss Dam construction can result in “the loss of access to traditional means of livelihood, such as agricultural production and fishing practices (UNEP, 2000)

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INDIGENOUS

LEANNE YEUNG

• Dam construction sites follow with emerging economies from boom towns, which increase access to previously inaccessible areas and connect the local economies to national markets exposing Indigenous groups

• Indigenous groups had difficulty adjusting to and controlling the exposure due to lack of previous experience, which threatens their lands and livelihoods (UNEP, 2000)

Experiences:

• Indigenous populations have negatively suffered due to: structural inequities, discrimination, cultural dissonance, and economic and political marginalization

• Example: losing land that was for burial purposes and were sacred → can cause severe cultural/emotional trauma

• Example: repeatedly reaped from accessing the shared benefits of the dams (such as clean water) (UNEP, 2000)

Rights and Recognition:

• Inadequate surveying created structural implications to those deemed as “affected” or not by dam development.

• Indigenous groups were not a part of those defined as “affected” and not granted compensation → happened to be the livelihoods that were socially affected the most

Further Discrimination:

• Have originally been denied citizenship, and lacked the legal documentation to be recognized by the state

• Lacked proper protection as their rights were commonly poorly defined within national legal frameworks

• Failed to be provided with legal titles to the new land of the re-settled Indigenous groups afterwards

• Most Indigenous groups failed to receive proper compensation from governments (UNEP, 2000)

Case Study: Bennett Dam - Tsay Keh Dene Band

• W.A.C Bennet Dam is in Northern BC, by Hudson’s Hope

• The creation of Bennett dam flooded the Tsay Keh Dene’s traditional grounds around Williston lake (Hume, 2009)

• The Tsay Keh Dene had to relocate and re-establish themselves in the northern part of the Williston Reservoir (Izony and Hadi, 2016)

• Flooding caused decline in woodland caribou, and the uncut trees in the reservoir basin, from initial construction, contaminated fish populations with mercury (Hume, 2009)

• Faced dust storms, and had to pay inflated prices to purchase their basic needs (Izony and Hadi)

• Depended on payments given by BC Hydro in exchange for completing tasks (Izony and Hadi, 2016) o filed lawsuit in 1999 against the provincial govt, and received compensation for damage o one payment of $26.5 mil, and $2 million annually (Hume, 2009)

6

POLITICAL

ROBERT FENTON

• Policy includes: social and environmental effects, the regulatory framework and public acceptance issues.

• The political rhetoric behind dams is currently polarized. In the last 20 years in conjunction with rise of

environmental consciousness dams have become increasingly scrutinized.

• The 20th Century experienced the golden age of dams where dams became seen as symbols of

development and modernity and sustainable progress.

• In the years to follow unplanned and overlooked consequences that touched social, ecological, and

economic dimensions gave light to the problems with the emerging colossal technology.

• The decision-making process on dam implementation had become narrowed tunnel vision on economic

prosperity and the apparent.

“Once a proposed dam project passed preliminary technical and economic feasibility tests and

attracted interest from financing agencies and political interests, the momentum behind the project

often prevailed over other considerations. Project planning and appraisal for large dams was

confined primarily to technical parameters and the narrow application of economic cost-benefit

analyses.” - Executive Summary WCD

World Commission on Dams:

• The World Commission on Dams released a proposal framework to help guide decision making for dams in

1998.

• The decision-making proposal was well accepted by most countries

• The WCD report was met with some resistance facing the problem that the governments of the four

countries rejected its recommendations (India, China and Turkey), or at best responded with reticence

(Brazil).

Global Examples

• China has the most potential for development and currently has a contentious dam under construction

• Xiaonanhai Dam: Near Chongquing and upstream from the largest dam in China, The Three Gorges Dam

• Brazil’s San Antonio and Jirau Dams as examples of the hydro-industrial complex

“Instead of my archetype I saw: dams built of dirt and dams generating no electricity; dams praised by ecologists

and dams despised by engineers; dams used for centuries by Indigenous peoples, dams boosting fisheries, dams

causing deadly floods; dams changing river chemistry or increasing net greenhouse gas emissions. I saw dam

benefits by-pass thirsty adjacent communities en route to the city, dams exhaust and erode rich soils through

water logging and salinity. I saw dams displace no one, dams create wetlands and work, dams cost thrice their

budget, dams utterly abandoned, and which had no symbolic value. Then I saw politicians approach rivers with

ambitious, bureaucratic schemes, opposed by local activists shouting, ‘Save our beloved dam’”

- The Chairman of the WCD, Kadar Asmal

Dam Removal in the United States

• 1997 Edwards Dam 1st dam removal

• American Rivers declared 2011 the year of the river

• Elwha River in Olympic national park

7

ECONOMIC

PETER LEE

The Past

• $600 million in benefits to hydropower, $550 million in benefits to water supply

The Present

• One of the greenest power-generation projects - Andrew Weaver (Clark, 2017)

• Hydro generation is the largest primary source in 2010 generating 63% of electric power (Stat Can, 2012)

• However, we have enough power the next 25 years if we consume as oppose to sell

• Alternative energy projects can be brought online over time as extra power is needed - Andrew Weaver (Clark, 2017)

Economic Benefits

• Economic Benefits include: job creation and increased relationships / profits from excess energy production

o Example: Job Creation from Portage Mountain Dam (located in Northern BC) → employed 4850 workers at peak with a payroll estimated $46.2 million (LiUNA, 2017)

o Energy Sales: net revenues es reached $2.8 billion in 2015 (Carter, 2016)

o Buy Low - Sell High: selling must be at least $10 per megawatt hour higher than the import price (Carter, 2016)

o Example: Increased Relations from Powerex → subsidiary of BC Hydro, responsible for marketing and managing excess energy from the US and Canada

Problems with Hydropower

• Cost: Large dams suffered average cost overruns of 96%. (Bosshard, 2014)

• Time: 8 out of every 10 large dams suffered a schedule overrun. (Ansar et al, 2014)

• Monopoly: Due to the high cost of building dams, monopolies form since usually only one company usually has the financial capacity to build such expensive structures.

Alternatives

• Opportunity Cost: the cost of the next best alternative given up to achieve the desired goal.

• LED powered solar or wind energy, geothermal and pumped hydro - Andrew Weaver (Clark, 2017)

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ENVIRONMENTAL – UPSTREAM

TYLER HUGUET

• The impact of each dam is unique and depends not only on the dam structure but also on the attributes of local biota and climactic and geomorphologic conditions

• Changes in biodiversity (biological impact) river flow, and water quality (Physiochemical impacts) both within the river and on the floodplain, are all interlinked

Physiochemical Impacts

• Alteration of flow regime

• Major change upstream of dam involves shift from lotic (free-flowing) to lentic (still-standing) environments and an inundation of surrounding terrestrial ecosystems

• Changes to the thermal regime

• Relatively large mass of still water in reservoirs allows heat storage and thermal stratification

• Shift to seasonal patterns of thermal behaviour (Rivers are a smaller fast-moving mass and rapidly change to external meteorological conditions and are well mixed)

• Impacts on water chemistry • Mature reservoirs can act as nutrient sinks and induce eutrophication (Chapman, 1996) • Bacterial decomposition transforms inorganic mercury into methylmercury (Dumont, 1995) • As organic material settles in reservoirs and decompose they release greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4)

(St louis et al., 2000) → Especially true in tropical regions

• Impacts on sedimentation

• Reservoirs reduce flow velocity and enhance sedimentation • Large magnitude and frequent fluctuations in water levels erode shores

Biological Impacts

• Impacts on primary production

• Periphyton and macrophytes may be less suited to environment (McCartney, 2009) • Reduction in the diversity of riparian vegetation (Nilsson et al., 1997) • Increase in phytoplankton reduces light penetration, and when they decompose they decrease water

oxygen content (Joffe & Cooke, 1997) • Impacts on Molluscs

• Molluscs usually exceed the biomass of other benthic organisms in freshwater environment (Layzer et al., 1993)

• Extirpation of resident species, and inhabitation of non-native species (McCartney, 2009) • Impacts on Fish

• Extirpation of resident species, but may benefit other species (McCartney, 2009) • Changes in water temperature affect growth of freshwater fish through feeding behaviours, food

assimilation, and production of food organisms (McCartney, 2009) • Fish near the top of the food chain within reservoirs generally have higher levels of methylmercury in

them (McCartney, 2009) • Impacts on Birds and Mammals

• Loss of habitat and species extinction (Decamps et al., 1987) • May benefit some species especially in arid regions (Cowan & van Riet, 1998)

9

ENVIRONMENTAL – DOWNSTREAM

LAUREN PEDRIKS

Change to Flow Regimes

• Natural flows are interrupted by dam’s ability to control water being released downstream.

• Important as natural flow regimes trigger migration and creates and maintains physical habitat structures

• Pulse releases (hydropower and irrigation dams): large amounts of water being release from the reservoir to, in the case of hydropower dams, generate energy

• The physical structure of dams block river channels that are used as migratory or spawning channels

• Riparian areas, floodplains and delta habitats are altered due to unnatural flow regimes Change to Thermal Regimes

• Releases of cold, base water from reservoirs, supply the downstream river with cold water. Ectotherms (i.e. fish) rely on water temperature for their metabolism, physiology, life-history and growth

• Some areas affected by the warming of water due to climate change can benefit from the cool water by balancing and mimicking natural water temperatures

Change to Water Chemistry

• Methylmercury present in fish tissue is caused by the bacterial decomposition in reservoirs. o This makes fish toxic for human consumption → social implications

• Decreased water pH → organisms are less likely to survive due to the affects on species function Effects of Sedimentation

• The flow of sediment from natural headwaters provide nutrients for downstream plant growth and biota

• Decreases in sediment loads leads to degrading river banks and beds, resulting in a loss of freshwater species habitat and a decrease in nutrients for vegetation to thrive

• At the mouth of the river, tends to have a low sediment → degradation of deltas/coastlines o The lack of sediment leaves these areas vulnerable to erosion due to wave action

Impacts on Riparian Vegetation

• Riparian areas are transition zones between land and river and consist of hydrophilic plants

• Low sediment deposition regimes prevent narrowing of river channels which riparian vegetation depend on the survive

• Pulse releases result in an inconsistent flow of water, and therefor cause stress on the plant’s root systems Impacts on Freshwater Fish

• Changes following dam construction leads to a decrease in ecosystem services required for species survival o Pulse releases make species environments on predictable as they have yet to adapt to the new

exposure o Niches allow species to live under specific conditions, but with changing conditions due to dams,

survival is uncertain

• Because of these drastic changes and stress on native species, non-native species are given room to invade and thrive in environments they are better adapted to

• The obvious physical barrier of a dam interrupts migratory and spawning routes, making the species less successful in reproduction → population decline

Mitigation

• The complexity of impacts dams’ have on the environment has yet to be fully recognized in dam construction and planning

• Attempts have been made to improve the impacts of pulse releases and sediment flushing by mimicking natural flows, but this method is rare, and their benefits are unclear

• Fish ladders help fish get to a suitable spawning location. This form of human intervention may confuse fish and have unnatural water temperatures and flow regimes.

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CONCLUSION

To meet the needs of our growing population and our consumer-based lifestyles, dams provide

a good alternative to meet energy and water needs. Dams result in permanent changes to local

communities and ecosystems both upstream and downstream.

When the consultation process is done properly and there is adequate representation from all groups, there are some lasting benefits from large dams.

NOTES:

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