Nice, I am a hydropower guy and its rare to see river / hydro related things on front page!

This is about knocking dams down, not putting them up :).

Yes decommissioning is an integral part of the project and regulators and lenders mandate you to set aside funds for it before the first brick is even laid. Knocking them down is part of the project's economic and environmental risks evaluation. Projects can be rejected by regulators if there is no feasible way to run it or knock it down without irreversible damage to the natural environment or communities.

It feels like a rare success. We managed to get an unneeded dam removed and we did it without endless fights in court and it seems to be working.

I remember seeing that dam when I went camping at Elwa one summer. That is such a beautiful area, it doesn’t need dams like the Columbia.

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11095592