Even though the two dams spanning the river in Bedford, Pa., were old, troublesome and functionally useless, locals just couldn\u2019t quit them.<\/p>\n
The dams were built for swimming and fishing, but so much silt had built up that the river was mere inches deep. They trapped debris, worsened flooding and thwarted migratory fish. They were also falling apart, drawing warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency that they would have to be replaced, repaired or removed, at local taxpayer expense.<\/p>\n
Yet the people of Bedford had grown attached to the dams, which dated back 50 years. Some also believed, wrongly, that the barriers housed important utility wires or cables. \u201cSomebody always came forward and gave a concrete reason those dams could not possibly be removed,\u201d said Kenny Fetterman, who sits on the Bedford Borough Council.<\/p>\n
He was determined to find a fix, and spearheaded an effort that led to the dams\u2019 removal last summer. \u201cNow the river is so much cleaner,\u201d said Mr. Fetterman, who as far as he knows is not related to Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania. \u201cThe quality of water has improved drastically. There\u2019s freshwater clams in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was part of what might be called the undamming of America.<\/p>\n
Last year, more sections of the country\u2019s rivers were reconnected thanks to dam removals than at any other time in history, according to the nonprofit group American Rivers. In 2025, more than 100 dams were dismantled in 30 states, reconnecting around 4,900 miles of waterways, including 156 miles of a branch of the Juniata River that are now reconnected thanks to the removal of Bedford\u2019s two dams.<\/p>\n
The resulting free-flowing waterways are healthier, cooler and less prone to algal blooms, and serve as vital habitat for migratory fish and other aquatic life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even though the two dams spanning the river in Bedford, Pa., were old, troublesome and functionally useless, locals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[254320,263764,137401,90013,728,263763,263765,263762,37096,70,16,15,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-944493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-american-rivers","9":"tag-bedford-pa","10":"tag-conservation-of-resources","11":"tag-demolition","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-hydroelectric-power","14":"tag-klamath-river","15":"tag-levees-and-dams","16":"tag-rivers","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116535094485678664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}