Letters: SC will be better off with fewer dams

Much as I sympathize with the homeowners who are losing attractive lakes as a result of the October floods, our state will be better off in the long run with fewer impoundments. As a restoration ecologist who frequently works on expensive dam removal and stream restoration projects, I am concerned about the widespread failure of our human experiment in manipulating natural hydrology.

Removing dams restores fish migration and supports healthy populations of macroinvertebrates that are food to many aquatic species. Free-flowing water is cooler, which is better for native plants and wildlife. And streams that are free of dams have sediment loads that vary by season and move material gradually and naturally downstream, as opposed to the huge dumps of sediment that get sequestered behind dams, creating expensive problems like we saw last year.

Let’s learn to appreciate natural streams as neighborhood amenities, and let’s be sure we learn from the problems caused by dam failures.