Rivers are the lifeblood of health and economy in New England and New York. More than 30 million people in the Northeast get their drinking water from rivers. All wildlife depends on rivers and streams for water and habitat.
The economy depends on rivers for everything from watering crops to transporting goods to sustaining commercial fisheries.
And yet our rivers have never been more at risk due to climate change and aging infrastructure. We are already feeling the effects of warming in the Northeast's ecosystems, with warmer winters and increasingly intense storms and floods. Severe fragmentation by dams is exacerbating the effects of climate change on fish species, which are already in steep decline. In addition, drinking water infrastructure throughout the Northeast will collapse without immediate action.
Let's keep in touch!
We are working hard in the North East for rivers and clean water. Sign up to get the most important news affecting your water and rivers delivered straight to your inbox.
Basic Topics
In the Northeast, American Rivers works to:
River restoration: Most of the 20,000 dams that fragment New England and New York rivers no longer serve their original purpose. Many are at risk of failing with disastrous results. Removing harmful dams is the fastest way to improve river habitat, water quality, recreational opportunities, and community safety.
Improving river health as hydropower dams are relicensed: Hydroelectric dams radically alter the flow of streams, decimate fish populations, damage water quality, and degrade wildlife habitats. The federal process for renewing operating permits for hydroelectric dams is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reverse some of this damage. We will leverage re-licensing to enable low carbon energy and healthy rivers.
Help communities adapt to the threats of climate change: Flooding is the most frequent severe weather threat and the costliest natural disaster facing the nation. Reconnecting floodplains to rivers helps rebuild natural infrastructure to store and absorb floodwater, provide habitat, filter pollutants, and recharge groundwater supplies.
Invest in clean water infrastructure to reduce pollution: With more support, we can work to ensure that more than $5 billion in federal funding goes where it's needed most and leads to projects that keep polluted stormwater and wastewater out of our rivers and communities.
Build strong relationships: The problems facing rivers and their communities are large and cannot be solved without strong collaboration and a partner-based approach. American Rivers seeks to build strong, collaborative relationships with other conservation groups and community-based organizations.
RECORD BREAKING
River restoration: American Rivers was instrumental in removing the Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River in 1999—the project that sparked a movement for free-flowing rivers in the US and around the world. The removal was significant because it was the first time the federal government ordered the removal of a dam because the environmental costs outweighed the small amount of energy produced by the dam. Success on the Kennebec shows that dam removal is working: tens of millions of alewives, herring, striped bass, shad and other saltwater fish now travel up the Kennebec River, the largest migration on the East Coast. Abundant ospreys, bald eagles, sturgeon and other wildlife have also returned. Twenty years later, more than 271 dams have been removed in New England by American Rivers and our partners, including 45 dam removals in Maine.
Investing in Clean Water: American Rivers worked extensively with groups in New England to advocate for stronger national protections against stormwater pollution – resulting in a national-regional collaboration that led to new ideas applicable both in New England and elsewhere in the US. The local expertise and ideas developed by the New England organizations became case studies that American Rivers was able to use in federal advocacy efforts with the Environmental Protection Agency as well as other states, resulting in stormwater policy improvements in places like California and the Mid-Atlantic.