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Remove the Dams, Save the Salmon
Groups in the Northwestern United States are spearheading an effort to remove several dams to save the region's salmon population. The plan would spend a billion dollars to destroy four dams on the Klamath River in Oregon. The dams were built a hundred years ago. Back then, people dammed the rivers to produce electrical power. The river water is held back and then the tumbling water is used to turn huge propellers that generate electricity.
It turns out that idea wasn't as good as people once thought. One problem is that salmon can't swim upstream from the ocean to lay their eggs anymore. Before the dams, the Klamath River was full of fish. Now there aren't any salmon, because they can't get past the dams.
There are other problems too. Dams cause algae to grow in the water, and some algae are toxic. Mud fills up the river by the dams and makes it so they don't even generate that much power. It will cost a billion dollars to destroy these dams, and a lot of different people will have to agree on the plan before it can happen. If they do get rid of those dams, there will hopefully be more salmon and cleaner water. It would be the nation's biggest dam removal project in history.
I'm Ben and that's what happened in our nation this week.
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