Dam Removals In PA Restore River Health

Cumberland’s Canal Place is working on dam removal as part of the River Park project and can look north to Pennsylvania as a leader in boosting river health. Last year, dam removal restored 4,900 miles of rivers in the Commonwealth. Jessie Thomas-Blate with American Rivers says over 400 dams have been removed in Pennsylvania since 1912, for various reasons from safety to economic development…

“Some of them were done for ecological reasons. Some of them were done to benefit public safety. Some of them were removed because the dams were just falling apart and needed to come out of the river. But ultimately, they all benefit the health of the river and the sustainability of the communities that they’re in.”