1.3. Spain : 

So far, around 300 dams (mainly small ones) have gone away (2008)

Links :

- 2016 : Vidéo : Dismanteling a dam "Desmán en el Tormes"

- 2013 : The dismanteling of the 23 m hight Robledo dam ( out of work since 1990) by the
"Confederación del Tajo" , http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/02/09/madrid/1391967968_595758.HTML

- 2013 : two good video about dam destructions in the last years in Spain :
- Free the Rivers : Proposals by the WWF : - Liberando ríos - Propuestas de WWF para el
desmantelamiento de presas en España, Avril 2009 http://assets.wwf.es/downloads/presas_informe_completo.pdf
The campaign Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPZmugrqxzc

- Dam Removal on a Roll in Spain, 2008 : http://internationalrivers.org/en/node/3645

- Video (short): the demolition of the Dam " Presa del Tranco", Río Manzanares - Madrid 2008, YouTube

- Interview with Pedro Brufao, Rios con Vida (Spain) http://internationalrivers.org/en/the-way-forward/river-revival/interview-with-pedro-brufao-rios-con-vida-spain

2.1 USA

Documents and ressources :

- U.S. Dam Removals 1936-2013
Few things have such a fundamental impact on a river as a dam. Dams block a river’s flow and can harm clean water, fish and wildlife, and recreation opportunities. American Rivers has pioneered a science-based approach to the removal of outdated dams. Use this map to explore all the dam removals we have on file back to 1936. If you have information to help us update this map, let us know ! http://www.americanrivers.org/initiatives/dams/dam-removals-map/

- River Recovery trough dam decommissioning (British Columbia, Canada)
- Website of the River Revival / Decommissioning campaign in USA
- Report : Beyond Dams (American Rivers / IRN) Options + Alternatives 88 pages pdf,1.6 MB,e
- liste of 654 barrages dismanteld in 1999 - 2006 (American Rivers website)
- The - Clearinghouse for Dam Removal Information (a neutral clearinghouse to centralize and improve access to information on dam removal).This website provide a Free Video :"Relics and Rivers: Dismantling Dams in New England" by the NOAA Restoration Center
- Taking a Second Look: Communities and Dam Removal (see chapter Video)
- Dam Removal: A Big Change for Small Communities (see chapter Video)

Videos

- Watch the great "Damnation" trailer
- The final blast of Glines Canyon Dam, the Elwha is Free (2014)
- Taking a Second Look: Communities and Dam Removal
- Dam Removal: A Big Change for Small Communities
- Elk Creek Dam: Le début de la démolition , Video ( Army Corps of Engeneers), Youtube, 2008, Southern Oregon, USA
- Video de la démolition du "Gold Hill Dam", Rogue River, USA, 2008, YouTube
- Milltown Dam Removal , Clark Fork Rivers, near Missoula Montana, USA 2008, YouTube
- time-lapse video of the breach of the Marmot Dam, on the Sandy River in Oregon.USA, 2007,YouTube
- Marmot Dam removal - final version,Sandy River,USA, 2007,YouTube
- Horse Creek Dam Explosion, (Sisquoc Creek/Sanata Maria River), Los Padres National Forest,California, USA,2006 YouTube
- Bear Run Dam Removal,close to Pittsburgh,Pennsylvanie,USA,2008 ?, YouTube

 

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French pilot experiences and the european context
by Roberto Epple, Founder President of ERN European Rivers Network, Nov. 2000

The European context

On the European continent, as everywhere in the world, dam building has been very common for centuries and millenniums. It used to be small dams built with basic means. They were used for irrigation and less often for navigation or wood transportation.

With industrial revolution, development of fluvial transport and agricultural improvements, needs became more and more important. At the same time, building technology has improved and the size of dams progressively grew

Many medium size dams in Europe that have been built from the beginning of the century to the end of World War II are now reaching the end of their lifetime. Most of these dams are located in mountainous areas and especially in the Alps (Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria) and in Norway. They are 3 to 25 meters high or more and were built for electricity or, less often, for water - supply.

After WWII, dam projects were more and more important and were located both in mountainous areas and on lower parts of rivers (and even sometimes on estuaries).

In most European countries (with the exception of some Eastern countries, and the ex-Soviet Union) almost every dam is under a concession which lasts from 40 to 60 years. This period is usually smaller than the physical lifetime of the building.

These concession, granted by the state, are defining, depending on the state :

• the aim of the structure (type of production),
• the methods of exploitation,
• minimum flow release
• ownership of the equipment, powerhouse and dam during and after the end of the concession
• what has to be done if the concession stops (renaturalisation, renewal of the concession etc.)
• from time to time, who has to pay the renaturalisation.
• the taxes,
• etc.

Some countries have other types of concessions:
Criteria can be: size, power capacity, height or length of the dam, reservoir volume , private or public ownership….
For little dams smaller than approx. 5 m and especially in the case of very old dams, concessions are often incomplete or inexistant

When Dams become old

In western and northern Europe an estimated minimum of ten thousands or more dams higher then approx. 3 m are about to ask for a renewal of their concession during the next 10 - 20 years. The figures for eastern and southern Europe are unknown yet.

There will therefore be, from 2010 on, another important number of big dams built from the 50ies to the late 80ies whose concession will draw to a close.

Those were built in high mountains as well as on lower parts of most of all European rivers (for navigation, electricity, irrigation, flood protection, etc.).

One has to deal today with small to medium size dams (even though according to international criteria all dams higher than 15 meters are considered as " large ").

Since most of the concessions are drawing to a close only now, European experience in handling this problem is rather limited

They are different scenarios for dams that already have or soon will reach the end of their concession :

A) The dam is reaching the end of its concession but is still technically viable and does not have – officially - any major negative effect on the ecosystems.

This is the most frequent case. It concerns mainly very small dams (less than 5 m high).

This is a very important step since most people considered dams to be unchangeable facts.

Pilot experiences in France

This part of the articel includes the note by Alexis Delaunay of the French Ministery for Environment ("Dam Decommissioning in France" October 22, 1999 )

Many French watercourses have been developed for centuries in order to cover man's needs particularly for energy, navigation, and agriculture. Important impacts on riverine ecosystems have often resulted.

First of all, all big French rivers flow to the Atlantic Ocean (except the Rhône river). This means that they are all rivers for migratory fishes. A French law passed a few years ago makes compulsory that all obstacles preventing the migration on those rivers have to be either destroyed or equipped with fish ladders before April 2000.

But dams are not only impediments to the migration of biological organisms. They also modify the morphodynamic and hydraulic features of the rivers by slowing down the stream, warming the water and taking up silt and nutrients. It was realised that dams were responsible for many flooding problems, a degradation of ecosystems and of water quality.

This new awareness leads to the creation of a strong popular movement supported by the NGOs in favour of living rivers. At the end of the 1980ies, a big program of dam building on the Loire basin appeared and engendered one of the most important environment struggle in France which was led by the Loire Vivante network. In 1994, after ten years of fighting, the "Plan Loire Grandeur Nature" was created. This new state program reflected a deep change in the conception of river management : among many other things, instead of building three new big dams on the Loire river three older dams where destroyed (2 on the Loire river and one the Léguer river).

Those three dams, 6 to 15 m high, and built on rivers with migratory fishes, have been removed recently so as to restore the ecological quality of these watercourses : the dams are those of "Kernansquillec" on the Léguer river (Côte d'Armor), "St-Etienne du Vigan" on the Allier river (Haute-Loire) and "Maisons-Rouges" on the Vienne river (Indre-et-Loire). The two latter dams were hindrances to the migration of the last European Atlantic Salmons. (Salmo salar)

The legal and regulatory framework

 The October 16, 1919 Act on the use of hydroelectric power foresaw that the concessions or authorisations to use the hydroelectric power are granted for a limited time and cannot in any way exceed seventy-five years. They may be renewed, but the renewal involves finding a balance between the socio-economical advantages linked to maintaining the dam (energy, multi-use working, drinking-water supply, tourism, etc...) and the drawbacks for the environment. According to the positive or negative balance, the decision is taken by the administrative authority either to renew the authorisation or the concession or on the contrary to terminate it and request the restoration of the site and river.

The concessions include constructions over 4500 kW (public-service concessions in French law) : at the end of the concession agreement, the infrastructure returns to the French State, which will decide either to renew the title or to dedicate the dams to other uses or even, if necessary, to remove them (at the State's expenses).

As regards the authorisations of smaller works (with a power less than 4500 kW), these works always remain under the petitioner's ownership when the authorisation comes to its term. If the authorisation is not renewed, the October 16, 1919 Act, (Article 16, § 6) compels the owner to restore the free flow of the river at his own expenses.

The three previously authorised dams in question had been maintained for a period of 75 years, i.e. up to October 16, 1994. Among more than a hundred concession or authorisation works projects for renewal, the State rejected these three. They were subsequently demolished as the dams had no longer real economical interest and because of their impact on the environment it did not seem justified to keep them any longer.

Reversibility of layout and management plans

This fixed period of the licence with the obligation to restore the site back to its prior state allows the authorities to implement the reversibility principle of development projects, if the drawbacks of the work have been underestimated, comparing them with their advantages.

This reversibility principle has thus been implemented in France, namely within the Natural Loire River Plan, which was adopted by the French Government on January 3rd, 1994. This whole Loire River Plan aims at the protection of the people and the prevention of floods, while preserving the habitat and the water environment, in particular the " wild " aspect of the Loire and its tributaries. In this objective one of the major steps has been the conservation of the migratory fishes, among which the great Loire salmon, the only one of its species still able to run up a big river in Europe, i.e. 800 km/(500 miles) between the estuary and the spawning sites.

Therefore, the Government decided that the old dams of St Etienne du Vigan on the Allier tributary river and Maisons-Rouges on the Vienne tributary river whose ecological impacts were no longer compensated by an economical interest would be removed (see below). The Government also accepted the principle that a certain number of other projects should be carried out, after their usefulness was verified and inasmuch as their environmental impact was minimised by the adequate corrective and compensating actions. The whole government plan aims at the sustainable development of the Loire river.

However, insofar as the public service concession system is concerned, this reversibility principle could be improved, as the licensee draws most financial benefits from the concession contract, while the costs of restoration are covered by the State.

Kemansquillec on the Léguer river (Côte d'Armor)

visite our new ERN webpage for that dam

The context

This multi-vaulted concrete dam, roughly 15 m high, was built over the Léguer river in 1920 as a concession in order to supply energy to a paper plant. The 400,000 m³ storage, located downstream from agricultural areas, experienced extensive eutrophication and significant silting of about 50%. The storage draw-down operation that was carried out during the last safety check, which is compulsory every ten years in France except in special cases, was catastrophic for the water fauna which was buried under the released silt. As the authorisation procedure following the expiry of the licence was being considered, the administrative authority informed the outgoing concessionary of the conditions under which the new licence would be granted : particularly, by increasing the capacity of the overflow works and removing the silt from the reservoir. The outgoing concessionary referred to give up his renewal request : the infrastructure was thus transferred back to the State by the end of the concession on December the 31st , 1993.

During the January, 1995 flood, seven houses had to be evacuated downstream upon the experts' recommendations, because of the insufficient capacity of the overflow works, as the water was about to overflow the dam.

In addition, the dam prevented the passing of salmon and other migratory fishes. Considering its limited interest, its age and its potential dangers for public safety and the environment, the State decided to demolish the dam.

Contracting of Works

The contracting works were carried out by the State (Ministry of Industry). The cost of FF 6.1 million was supported by the State with the help of the Loire-Brittany Water Agency.

Particular difficulties

The main difficulties concerning the reservoir draw-off operation and the precautions needed due to the strong siltation of the storage and the presence of fish-breeding areas and drinking water catchments downstream. The dam storage draw-down, authorised by a regulation of the Prefect dated 16th April, 1996, was done following the flushing of 95,000 m³ of mud along the axis of the stream bed, while the muds were treated in settling lagoons so as to protect the river downstream.

The demolishing licence was granted by the Prefect on 17th September, 1996. The demolition of the dam was completed in 1996 without any particular problems. A rehabilitation and development operation for the whole valley, including rehabilitation of industrial areas near the dam, is now to be undertaken by the Léguer river protection association.

Contacts

• The technical components of the operation have been followed up by
the Direction departementale de l'agriculture et de la forêt des Côtes
d'Armor (the Agriculture and Forest Directorate of the Côtes d'Armor
Department) :
Direction departementale de l'agriculture et de la forêt M Marc
BONENFANT rue du Parc Boîte Postale 2256 F - 22022 SAINT-BRIEUC Cedex
(France) Telephone : 02 96 62 47 00 Fax : 02 96 33 29 05

• A 16 mn videotape on the removal and its object, carried out by the
association « Eaux et Rivières de Bretagne » (Brittany's Waters and Rivers)
is available for FF 60.-(+ shipping expenses) from :
Centre d'initiation à la rivière (River-discovery centre) :
M. Vincent LEFEBVRE rue Castel Mond 22810 BELLE ISLE EN TERRE
Téléphone : 02 96 43 08 39 Fax : 02 96 43 07 29

• Conseil Supérieur de la Pêche (Bretagne), 84, rue de Rennes, 35510 CESSON SEVIGNE

• Eaux et Rivières de Bretagne 12, rue Lanveur 56100 LORIENT

• Fédération de Pêche des Côtes d'Armor, Le Guévon, 22230 ST-VRAN

Saint-Etienne du Vigan on the Allier river (Haute-Loire)

Please visite ou new webpage on that dam on ERNs Website

The context

The construction of a dam in the village of Saint-Etienne du Vigan was authorised in 1895 to supply electricity to the town of Langogne (Lozère).Being approximately 12 m high and having no special fish pass for migratory fishes, the dam had sterilised the excellent Upper-Allier salmon spawning sites. At the time of construction, strong protests were uttered, in vain, by the rural people for whom the fishing supplied a considerable additional income.

Photo:ERN European Rivers Network Roberto Epple / SOS Loire Vivante
The Dam when it collapse  (June 24, 1998, St. Etienne de Vigan, France)

  The town of Langogne rebuilt the dam in concrete a few metres downstream from the first 1895 dam which had become partially ruined. Electricité de France (EDF) became the owner of this dam in 1950.

Under the implementation of the " Plan " Loire Grandeur Nature " (the Natural Loire River Plan) which was adopted on January 3rd, 1994 by the French Government (see § here above), the Prefect did not renew the authorisation for this dam when it expired on October 16th, 1994. The French Government requested EDF to remove the dam at their own expense in order to restore the free running flow, in conformity with the 1919 law.

more information on the deconstruction (with photos)

Contracting of works

The demolition operation was led under EDF's contracting responsibility. The cost of about FF 7 million was covered mainly by EDF, helped by a contribution from the Loire-Brittany Water Agency.

Particular difficulties

The start of the demolition was delayed until a small flood occurred so as to reduce the risks of pollution during the storage draw-down operation. The removal was performed with explosives on June 24th, 1998.

The sediments at the bottom of the reservoir were of a very good quality (sands and gravel) and no pollution could be seen. The site has rapidly returned to a near-natural state and five spawning sites were found in the winter 1998-99 upstream of the former dam location.

Contacts

• Photographs and video pictures were taken. An introduction document
and a 6 mn video film was made by EDF on the dam's removal.

EDF (M.MURA) 5, rue des Cuirassiers F-69402 LYON Cedex 03
(France) Telephone : 04 78 71 44 77 Fax : 04 78 71 35 97 To obtain
the Vidéo, contact :

SOS Loire Vivante, soslv arobase rivernet.org +33 4 71 05 57 88
ERN European Rivers Network, +33 4 71 02 08 14

M. Francis MONOD (Video Prod.) Beaufort sur Doron 73270 LE PRAZ Tél/fax 04.79.38.19.06

• Direction departementale de l'Equipement de la Haute-Loire (Urban
Planning, Housing and Transport Directorate of the Haute-Loire
Department) : 13, rue Moulins F - 43000 LE PUY EN VELAY
(France) Telephone : 04 71 05 84 05 Fax : 04 71 05 84 55

• ERN / SOS LOIRE VIVANTE 8, rue Crozatier 43000 LE PUY EN
VELAY internet site : http://www.rivernet.org/stvig_f.htm

Biblio

¨ Modalités techniques de suppression de l'ouvrage, SOMIVAL, octobre 1995.
¨ Rapport de synthèse des études préalable, Agence de l'Eau Loire-Bretagne, novembre 1995.
¨ Dossier d'archives, Ministère de l'Environnement, décembre 1994.

Maisons-Rouges on the Vienne river (Indre-et-Loire department)

Please visite ou new webpage on ERNs Website

The context

Erected in 1922 as a hydropower concession, about 800 m downstream from the confluence of the Vienne and Creuse rivers, the Maisons-Rouges dam maintains a level difference of about 4 m (downstream of a basin area of about 20,000 km2). Built initially to supply a paper factory, it was integrated into EDF's assets in 1950. As this dam is the nearest obstacle to the sea, at the confluence of major rivers, its particular situation created a substantial impact on numerous species of migratory fishes. Particularly the salmon, already suffering from reduced access to a part of the spawning grounds, had disappeared. The shads have found shelter in remaining spawning sites downstream of the dam with problems of hybridisation between two species of shads (or aloses) : between the allice shad (alosa) and the twaite shad (alosa fallax/alosa firta).

Photo:ERN European Rivers Network, Roberto Epple
The Maison rouges dam (october 1998)
more information and photos

 The different fish-passes had a very low efficiency and the various salmon reintroduction plans undertaken on the Gartempe river (which is one of the Vienne river's tributaries) had no significant result.

According to the " Loire Grandeur Nature " (Natural Loire river plan) which was adopted on January 4, 1994, the Government decided that the dam's licence would not be renewed at its expiration date of 31st December, 1994 and that the State, becoming the site's owner at the termination of the concession, should undertake the removal of the work, due to the importance of the impacts which could not be balanced by any sufficient economical interest.

Contracting of  Works

The contracting responsibility was the State's (Ministry for the Environment and territorial planning). The demolition was led by the Indre-et-Loire department of Transport, Urban Planning and Construction Directorate and the actual works were under the responsibility of EDF.

The cost of the operation was about FF 14 million, mainly financed by the Ministry for the Environment and Territorial planning with the participation of the Loire-Brittany Water Agency.

Particular problems

 The main difficulty was due to local opposition as several rural villages would suffer important local tax losses after the dam's removal. In consequence a complementary plan of economic assistance was set up, at the same level of financial importance as the dam removal cost. Important financial assistance was granted by the State, the water agency, EDF and the Regional/Provincial authorities to support local development operations.

The removal operation was carried out in the summer of 1998, after the technical difficulties had been resolved by the contracting authority. Once half of the site was isolated by cofferdams able to maintain the required water storage for the irrigation of cultivated land, the removal operation essentially consisted in cutting the three sheetpile curtains with an oxyacetylene cutting flame and pulling down with a mechanical excavator the embankment between these sheetpiles. A drowned sill was made up at the bottom of the river bed, so as to avoid erosion that was foreseeable because of historically extensive sand extraction in the bed of the Vienne and Loire rivers. This also helped to slow down the migration of the sediments found upstream the reservoir.

The sediments consisted of sand and did not raise any problems of quality. Many agricultural pumps which used the reservoir water were restored by the State (this cost being included in the total operation cost). However, a camping site near the confluence about 800 m upstream the dam, did suffer a ground slide and one of the houses shows a few cracks, probably due to a change in the flow of the ground waters resulting from a lowering of the storage water level by 4 m.

The shads derived a very rapid benefit from the removal of the dam : 433 shads were caught in the river Vienne in Châtellerault, about 20 km upstream of Maisons-Rouges (i.e. 91 from the fish pass and 342 from a fish removal operation ; 156 fish were released upstream of the dam) ; and 15 on the Creuse river downstream of Descartes, about 12 km upstream from Maisons-Rouges.

Active spawning sites were observed on the Vienne river in Châtellerault and on the Creuse river l'Ilette. Lampreys were observed on the Vienne river down-stream of the Châtellerault dam, and consequently a new population of lampreys recolonised the Creuse river up to Saint-Gaultier, the Gartempe river up to Saulgé and the Anglin up to Cancrenier. The presence in July, 1999 of a living salmon, 88 cm long and weighing 4,8 kg, in the Gartempe river at Châteauponsac in the Haute-Vienne department is a very optimistic sign.

No living salmon had been observed so far upstream since the 1920s, when the Maisons-Rouges dam was built. The symbolic return of the salmon, after that of the shads and lampreys which was observed last winter, confirms the positive effects of the removal of the Maisons-Rouges dam on migratory fishes.

The Chinon University is monitoring this experiment. The first results show that the river bed is dynamically coming back to its initial state. (1 US $ = 6 FF)

Contacts

• An 8 mm videotape and a photographic brochure of the removal are
being published :

Urban planning, construction and transport departmental directorate of
Indre-et-Loire
Direction departementale de l'equipement d'Indre-et-Loire)
- CARO 61, avenue de Grammont 37041 TOURS Cédex Téléphone : 02 47 70 80
23 Fax : 02 47 70 80 29

• ADESVV - (Melle Nina DIEU) (association near Chinon University) 11,
quai danton 37500 CHINON Tél : 02 47 93 48 57 Fax : 02 47 93 49 30

• EPALA 3, av. Claude Guillemin 45100 ORLEANS

• Conseil Supérieur de la Pêche Délégation Régionale Centre - Pays de Loire - Poitou Charentes 112 rue du Faubourg Cueille Mirebalaise 86000 POITIERS Tèl : 05.49.41.29.88 Csp.dr4@wanadoo.fr

Biblio

¨ Poissons migrateurs sur le bassin de la Vienne, Perspectives de développement après effacement du barrage de Maisons Rouges, JF LUQUET, octobre 1993.

¨ Le franchissement du barrage de Maisons Rouges sur la Vienne par les poissons migrateurs, rapport d'expertise, M. LARINIER et F.TRAVADE, 1993.

¨ La suppression totale du barrage de Maisons Rouges au Bec-des-Deux-Eaux sur la Vienne : une nécessité pour l'avenir des migrateurs et de la socio-économie des pêches, Dr P. BOISNEAU de l'Association agrée interdépartementale des pêcheurs professionnels du bassin de la Loire et des cours d'eau bretons, mai 1994.

¨ Expertise du génie civil du barrage de Maisons Rouges, bureau d'étude ISL pour la DDE Indre et Loire, octobre 1996.

¨ Compte rendu de la réunion qui s'était tenue le 21 novembre 1996 à la préfecture d'Indre et Loire, sur l'avenir du barrage de Maisons Rouges.

¨ " Résumé non technique ", partie IV de l'étude effectuée par SEPIA Conseils, décembre 1997.

¨ Restauration des Poissons Migrateurs du Bassin de la Vienne : Objectifs et Investissement, Conseil Supérieur de la Pêche (Cellule Plan Loire), novembre 1996.

¨Etude de faisablité et de programmation pour un projet de développement local : Pôle d'Animation sur la Vallée de la Vienne et les Poissons Migrateurs sur la commune de Ports-sur-Vienne, demandée par la Préfecture d'Indre-et-Loire, avril 1999.

¨ Abondance de la Grande Alose dans la Loire, bilan de différentes études, 1998.

¨ Revue de presse.

¨ Effacement du barrage de maisons Rouges, synthèse de O. CLERICY et P. BERTEAUD, 1994.

¨ Etudes des modalités et des implications de l'effacement du barrage de Maisons Rouges, SEPIA-CONSEIL, 1994.

¨ Etudes des conséquences socio-economiques de l'effacement du barrage de Maisons Rouges, Groupe Cohérences, 1994.

A videotape and a photographic brochure of the removal are being published.