Headwaters Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

More Than 180 Years Later, 'Eelway' To Help American Eel Return Further Upstream

At the end of Vineyard Road in Falling Waters, West Virginia, there is an old, stone and brick structure on the Potomac River. This small, historic building is a hydroelectric power plant owned by Cube Hydro Partners based in Maryland. Beside the structure is ‘Dam #5.’

The dam, owned by the National Park Service, stretches the width of the river – from the West Virginia side to the Maryland side. It is 20 feet tall and was originally built in the 1830s.

While the dam provides electricity, it has also had an unintended consequence.

“Almost 85 percent of the American eel’s upstream habitat has been lost due to dams,” David Sutherland, coastal program biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, said. “So, there’s basically been a coastwide decline in American eel populations.”

This decline in American eel is why Sutherland and other officials started an initiative 15 years ago called the American Eel Restoration Project. The project works to install things called “eelways” – like byways, but for eels.

An eelway is almost operational at Dam #5. It is an aluminum ramp that is 65 feet long, and it has been secured to the side of the power plant. The ramp will have water running through it, and eels will be able to climb it. Once they reach the top, they will slide down a PVC pipe into a 250-gallon water tank.

“We’ll either be able to monitor them; they’ll be captured in a mesh bag, or if the mesh bag isn’t in there, they’ll be able to migrate right through the tank and upstream through a pipe and then back to the river,” Sutherland said.

The eels are unharmed when caught, and they are always released, Sutherland said.

The eelway will empty into this 250-gallon water tank. A pipe will connect the eelway to the tank, and then another pipe will connect the tank to the river.

The American eel lives most of its life in freshwater, and then migrates back into saltwater to lay their eggs. By the time the eels reach Dam #5 in Falling Waters, they’ve journeyed for 4 to 7 years from the Sargasso Sea, which is located in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the Potomac River, they will grow and mature. Sutherland said the further upstream eel can travel, the safer they are.

“Historically, 25 to 50 percent of the biomass in these headwater streams, upstream of Dam #5 here, used to be American eels. They’re primarily female eels; they metamorphose by the time they get up this far. They’re maturing, becoming silver eels and they’re ready to be out migrating with upwards of 9 million eggs.”

But without access to these headwater streams, these eels have been more susceptible to predators like flathead catfish, walleye, or blue catfish.

That’s why an eelway is important for their survival, especially if a historic dam like Dam #5 is unlikely to be removed.

The top of the 65-foot-long eelway at Dam #5.

The American eel does more for our water than we might realize. American eel help to transport larvae of the freshwater mussel, which help to clean water.

A single mussel can filter 10-15 gallons of water every day, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But baby mussels can’t travel far without hitching a ride on a fish’s gills, and the American eel offers an appealing one.

“American eels are critical for the ecosystem services they provide, especially with their relationship to freshwater mussels,” Tanner Haid, Eastern Panhandle Field Coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said.

Haid points out that West Virginia is a headwater state, meaning the water here flows out to many other people in states around us.

He said it’s for this reason that opening more travel ways for American eel and by extension, freshwater mussels, is vital to keeping our water clean.

“No matter where you are in our state, our water is connected to tens of millions of people. So, we have to acknowledge that role and do everything we can to protect that water at the source, and do these sort of habitat restoration projects to protect critical species,” Haid said.

The eelway is secured to the side of Cube Hydro’s power plant.

Once complete,the eelway at Dam #5 is expected to have cost about $150,000. That covers designing, construction, and installation. Sutherland said it will be the first year-round eelway in West Virginia.

5,000 to 10,000 eels are expected to migrate through it a year.

Dam #5’s eelway will also effectively open about 8,000 more river miles to the American Eel, according to Sutherland.

The eelway is expected to be operational by early spring 2020.

**Editor’s Note: This story was edited on Dec. 6, 2019 to correct the amount of water filtered daily by freshwater mussels.

A Bold New Vision For Restoring America's Most Polluted River

In many ways, the Ohio River is an unsung resource for the region it serves. The Ohio’s near-thousand-mile course flows through Pennsylvania and five other states before emptying into the Mississippi. It’s a source of drinking water for more than five million people. But its long legacy as a “working river” has also made it the most polluted in the country. Today, many cities and towns along the Ohio are rethinking their relationship to the river—and weighing how a large-scale restoration effort could be critical to the region’s future. But just how do we get there? As part of our Headwaters series, we talked with the National Wildlife Federation’s Collin O’Mara, who’s hoping to ignite a new way of thinking about one of the region’s most vital natural resources.

The Allegheny Front: So tell us why the National Wildlife Federation is turning its attention to the Ohio River.

Collin O’Mara: One of the things that we’re seeing is that there have been amazing investments made in the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay. But these investments tend to be in places that are seen as destinations: Folks plan vacations or retire or have second homes in some of these places. But we’re not seeing the same level of investments in what I would consider the “working waterways”—places like the Allegheny River leading into the Ohio River Valley, or places like the Delaware River. But 25 million people live in the Ohio River Valley Basin—that’s almost a tenth of the country. And yet we’ve seen virtually no investment of federal resources in trying to clean up the legacy pollution. The Ohio is still the most polluted waterway in the entire country. Over the last 50 years, between the Clean Water Act and reducing the direct discharge of pollutants into the water, there has been some progress. But folks don’t plan fishing vacations around going to the Allegheny, even though cities are seeing investments in their riverfronts as a way to revitalize their downtowns. So the next thing is having that investment not stop at the river’s edge—literally. We can have the water itself become a place you can swim, fish, recreate and enjoy the benefits that come from that.

LISTEN: “Cleaning Up America’s Most Polluted River”

AF: There have been some efforts to cooperate around water in this region, but they have largely stalled. So what can be done to move that effort forward?

CO: We’ve been working with some of the mayors and different advocacy groups in the region, trying to just begin talking about the Ohio River as a system and [develop] a vision for the entire watershed. There’s been some good work in places like the Beaver River; there are a bunch of groups in Kentucky working on the Green or the Cumberland. So we’re trying to unite those voices under a common vision. This has been done in places like the Chesapeake or the Great Lakes. So it’s really about trying to have a vision so folks are as excited about restoring these iconic waterways that, in many ways, help build our country.

The Ohio is the archetype of a “working river.” Its near-thousand-mile course connects cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Louisville and is lined with industrial facilities and power plants. In this February 2016 photo, a coal barge pushes past the industrial town of Marietta, Ohio.

AF: Well, it seems like the most exciting thing happening on the Ohio recently is the ethane cracker facility that Shell is planning to build near Pittsburgh. People are excited about the jobs and the economic development around that. How do you strike a balance between restoration and economic development?

CO: So often, in places that are working waterways, we basically treat these water bodies as simply a support for larger industrial facilities. And you see it with crackers or refineries, and you have many of those across the entire basin. Those jobs are important, but we don’t value the economic loss when you degrade these waterways. Right now across America, the outdoor economy is about a $646 billion economy. It employs more than six million people. And that puts it on par with many of the largest industries in the country. A lot of those jobs are water-dependent jobs related to fishing or swimming or outdoor activities. So one of the cases we’re trying to make is that it doesn’t have to be “either/or.” The technologies exist now that we can actually have some industrial facilities and still not have to contaminate the waterway. The old dichotomy of having to choose between the economy or the environment really isn’t true, and there are places in the country that are making those choices that they want both. What we’re trying to figure out is how do we work with leaders across the region to prioritize this. The cities are already making investments. In Pittsburgh, for instance, there’s obviously a focus on the fact that the water is what separates Pittsburgh from other cities in the region. So the question is, how do you take the next step?

AF: So do you imagine a scenario where Pittsburgh is more like the Chesapeake Bay—where it’s more of a recreational hub and that becomes a viable alternative to more industry?

CO: I absolutely do. Obviously, you have PCBs and dioxins and other things we have to get out of the water column that are legacy pollution. It’s not cheap, but it can be done. But there are amazing opportunities. That’s the reason why Frank Lloyd Wright chose Falling Water as a place to build his flagship structures. There are beautiful things in western Pennsylvania and most of them relate to water. And having more regional pride and having greater value placed upon the importance of those assets at least lays the foundation for this becoming a greater priority. It’s not something that any individual city or governor can do. But if you can actually build these coalitions, they become non-partisan in a way that it becomes simply a “value” and an ongoing priority. For example, a few years ago, President Obama proposed a reduction in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding. There was such bipartisan outrage that it was immediately put back higher than what the original budget amount was. Given the political power that’s in the region between Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky—I mean, you have some of the most important people in Washington that live along this watershed—there’s no reason why we can’t have significant investment go into the region.

Right now across America, the outdoor economy is about a $646 billion economy. It employs more than six million people. And that puts it on par with many of the largest industries in the country. So one of the cases we’re trying to make is that it doesn’t have to be either/or. The old dichotomy of having to choose between the economy or the environment really isn’t true.

AF: So are you getting buy-in from some of the people you’ve been talking to?

CO: I am. But the challenge is there’s a little bit of disbelief. One of the things about the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes is they’re seen as tourist destinations. And with these working waterways, it’s almost like they can’t envision what it could be. I’d say I’m getting a fairly lukewarm reception. No one is slamming a door in my face. But no one is jumping to the front of the line saying we need to do this right now.

AF: So regional water planning is kind of an interesting issue for the National Wildlife Federation to take on. Tell us why you think it’s such an important issue.

CO: You know, when we’re trying to address the challenges in the years ahead—issues on climate or issues around drought and fire—our salvation could be rooted in our natural resources, and particularly water. It’s great to talk about the Chesapeake and the Great Lakes. But a water body like the Ohio or the Delaware is actually more relevant to conversations that we’re having in the upper parts of the Mississippi or even some of the issues in the Mississippi River delta. If we can show progress in the Ohio River Valley, we can improve the quality of life for 25 million people and create a ton of jobs and a ton of investment. And frankly, if we can get it done there—in a place that has a lot of legacy pollution—we can basically show we can make [it] work anywhere. So it’s not just about the wildlife and habitat and the short-term gains. It’s really about showing that, as a country, we care about these resources—and by investing in them today, we are going to set ourselves up for another American century.

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Collin O’Mara is president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. This story is part of our Headwaters series, which explores the environmental and economic importance of the Ohio River. Headwaters is funded by the Benedum Foundation and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, and is produced in collaboration with The Allegheny Front.

Three New Developments to Watch Along the Ohio River

Cities and towns all along the Ohio River are pushing to reinvent their economies. And they’re turning to everything from recreation to new industry to do it. Here are three new developments we’re watching from Pennsylvania to West Virginia.

1. Shell’s Ethane Cracker

Shell faced questions this week at local and state hearings over the new petrochemical plant it plans to build northwest of Pittsburgh. Local officials asked the company about air and water pollution from the plant—as well as how noise, light and traffic will impact the surrounding communities.

Some nearby residents are concerned about how all these issues will impact their property values. But for commercial real estate in the region, one expert says Shell is bringing, if not a tidal wave, at least a “rising tide” of development. Dan Adamski, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate firm that represented Shell in purchasing the Beaver County site along the Ohio River, says the company chose this spot for a simple reason. “[It’s] primarily because of what’s underneath us—the Marcellus Shale. They like the location on the Ohio River.”

Shell plans to transport large materials up the Mississippi River—and the Ohio—to build its $4-billion plant, which will turn natural gas into plastic.

“The Ohio River, I think, will benefit from all this,” Adamski says. Shell is reportedly spending $80 million to clean up the site, which until recently, housed a large zinc smelter. “And it would have become a brownfield site, had Shell not gone there.”

Other industries are gearing up too, hoping to ride Shell’s coattails. Anecdotally, Adamski says, he’s heard asking prices are increasing on a regional basis for industrial land with rail and barge access. He says that means other brownfield sites along the river could also be cleaned up. “For better or worse, our brownfield sites are located along rivers because that’s where the previous generation of industry occurred. So [for] a lot of this industry we anticipate coming, the brownfield sites that do exist out there make perfect sense.”

Another upside for the river: According to Adamski, many of the spinoff jobs will include attorneys and new office workers. As with employees feeding the recent tech boom in Pittsburgh, these people want to work and live by the water. “They’re going to that location, and oftentimes, they’re paying a premium. It’s more expensive to develop along the river. Nobody wants to look out their window and see a dirty river.”

Reporting by Julie Grant

2. Whitewater Rafting in Morgantown?

If West Virginia is going to become the “whitewater capital of the world,” as John Lichter thinks it could, it’s about time it got a rafting and kayaking park—similar to the one pictured above on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. In fact, he’s already got a spot picked out on the Monongahela River (just upstream from the Ohio) in Morgantown.

While much of the riverfront in Morgantown is undeveloped, Lichter and his group have chosen a site just south of the Morgantown Place Hotel, near the hike and bike trail, on the Morgantown Lock and Dam. The idea is to install a gate in the lock and dam system—diverting a portion of the water into a separate channel that would run parallel to the river.

“We’re not creating an amusement park, we’re recreating a natural river,” Lichter says. “It’s an attractive enhancement to the bike trail.”

Lichter originally came to West Virginia to be a raft guide and whitewater racer on the Cheat River. He graduated from West Virginia University and loved the state so much, he made it his home. He says a park like this will give locals the chance to get on the river. “A person could take a break from work [and] they could go out in the morning, go out in the evening. “

He says it could also bring tourists to the area. “In places like Boise, Idaho, it attracts surfers, it attracts people with standup paddle boards—even boogie boards.”

His plan could hinge on a proposal by Rye Development to build hydroelectric power plant on the same lock and dam. Lichter says the whitewater channel would likely have to compete for water with the hydro-plant, but he’s talked with Rye, and the two might be able to coexist.

The rafting park also has to contend with outfall from a nearby wastewater treatment plant. “We’re very confident the water is clean enough—and also confident that by getting on the river, it will help people realize what a resource they have and take care of it.”

Reporting by Anne Li and Julie Grant

3. Industry is Moving Back to Chester, West Virginia

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Patrick Ford (pictured on the left, above) believes the upper Ohio Valley is going through an economic rebirth. Exhibit A: The Rocksprings Business Park on the site of the former Taylor Smith and Taylor pottery factory in Chester, West Virginia.

“I never thought I’d see this day,” Ford says, watching construction continue on a new 30,000-square-foot warehouse on a cold December day. He calls the sound of drills “music to my ears.”

Ford is the executive director of the Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle (BDC) in West Virginia. The mission of the private nonprofit is to foster a diverse economy in Brooke and Hancock counties. It’s his job to attract big business and revitalize industry in the Ohio Valley.

One of the major challenges he faces is securing the flat land that lines the Ohio River Valley. Ford says it’s filled with abandoned, contaminated former industrial sites. The Taylor factory sat empty and decaying for decades before BDC acquired it in 2012. Ford says it took coordinating public, private, local, state and federal partners to navigate a path that led to demolition, remediation—and today—construction of the new industrial park at the site along the Ohio River.

To get to this point, BDC first had to demolish and remove the dilapidated remnants of the 80,000-square-foot factory, which was laced with asbestos and lead. Then, the soil itself, which was also contaminated with toxic chemicals, had to be trucked away. Finally, the river had to be dredged for pottery shards, since—for decades—factory employees threw all the broken, lead-leaching pottery over the bank into the river.

Only then could phase one of construction begin. It took five years and $3 million from 14 different funding sources. “That ought to tell you why so many of these [industrial sites] sit empty,” Ford says.

With a model now in place to remediate these sites, Ford says momentum is building—and a handful of other developments downriver are already under construction. “There are shovels in the ground in Chester, Weirton, Wellsburg and Beech Bottom.”

Reporting by Glynis Board

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This story is part of our Headwaters series, which explores the environmental and economic importance of the Ohio River. Headwaters is funded by the Benedum Foundation and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, and is produced in collaboration with The Allegheny Front.

Could the Former Shenango Coke Works Site Become a Solar Farm?

Closed in January 2016, the Shenango Coke Works on Neville Island is a quiet place these days. A group of local activists would like to keep it that way: They’d like to see the site turned into a solar farm. A pipe dream? Maybe not. The utility that owns it actually has a robust recent history of investing in renewables.

Last year when Leah Andrascik heard the Shenango Coke Works was closing, she thought it was a joke. Then, when she realized the news sent in an email by a fellow activist was true, she was relieved.

Andrascik lives just across the Ohio River from Neville Island, just north of Pittsburgh, where the coke plant was a constant source of concern for many residents. “When it was still in operation, there was a lot of dark smoke that would come out of the battery,” Andrascik says.

The battery is where the coke—a fuel derived from coal—was baked. She says the air smelled funny a lot of the time, and the sky was hazy. She was concerned for the health of her two small sons. That’s why she got involved with Allegheny County Clean Air Now (ACCAN). The group pressured the Allegheny County Health Department to take the coke plant to task over air quality violations and lobbied to shut it down.

LISTEN: What’s Next for the Shenango Coke Works Site?

DTE Energy, which owns the plant, cited the downturn in the steel industry as the reason it decided to shutter the plant. Andrascik says she felt bad that 173 workers lost their jobs, but this summer, she could let her boys play in their yard without having to worry about how the air was affecting them.

Leah Andrascik, who lives just across the river from Shenango Coke Works, thought it was a joke when she heard the plant was closing. Now, she’s relieved she can let her two boys play in their yard without having to worry about air pollution.

Now ACCAN is pushing for something else at the industrial site: a solar farm. The group has 800 signatures on a petition asking DTE to blanket Neville Island with solar arrays.

“It would be the first one in the Pittsburgh area,” Andrascik says. And she thinks it would be a feather in the city’s cap.

DTE owns one of the largest solar arrays in the eastern U.S, and another project in Lapeer, Michigan is expected to produce enough energy to power 9,000 homes. These sites incorporate hundreds of thousands of solar panels, and the utility is also building a smaller, urban solar array in Detroit.

A company spokesperson says it hasn’t yet determined a plan for the 50-acre Shenango site, but DTE Energy is aware of the petition and appreciates the community’s interest. Right now, the utility is working on cleaning up the site.

The 4-acre, 2,800-panel solar array at General Motors is part of a big push by DTE Energy to install more renewable energy operations in and around Michigan. The Detroit-based utilty has invested $2 billion in solar and wind projects since 2008.

Leah Andrascik says her group is concerned that the development of Shell’s ethane cracker in Beaver County will influence how the Shenango site is redeveloped. The cracker plant will produce polyethylene pellets to sell to plastics manufacturers.

“That would open up a whole host of different industry,” Andrascik says. “They call it downriver industry.”

For Andrascik, that means more pollution. She says Pittsburgh has worked hard to redefine itself from being the “Smoky City” to a clean and green leader that gets national attention for its bike trails and LEED certified buildings. With that track record, Andrascik thinks installing clean energy technology at the Shenango site just makes sense.

“I think that would go just one step further in saying we want to choose development that’s not going to impact the health of our citizens and that’s not going to impact the environment,” she says.

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Can the Recreation Economy Help Revitalize Small Towns on the Ohio River?

As towns large and small along the Ohio River struggle to rebuild their economies, many are trying to attract more industry. But some places are realizing that embracing the recreational side of their riverfronts can also be a key engine for growth.

Business has been picking up in recent years for Tim Reddinger, who owns a bait shop in Bridgewater, just north of Pittsburgh, along the Ohio River.

“Can you see that right there?” Reddinger asks, pointing from the bank to a nearby eddy in the river. “Those are baby shad—probably not a couple months old.”

LISTEN: Revitalizing the Ohio River Through Recreation

Industrial sites dot the river banks upstream and down from Reddinger’s fishing spot. But he says it’s nothing like it used to be when he was a kid 50 years ago.

“That mountainside over there was orange at night from all the blast furnaces glowing,” Reddinger says. “Dump city—anything you wanted to get rid of—back then, no one cared.”

But over time, many mills closed down, and the Clean Water Act limited pollution from those that remained. Reddinger remembers more than a decade ago, the shad started showing up.

“That tells you how good the water is,” Reddinger says. “Say ‘boo’ to them and they’ll fall over dead. They will not live in contaminated water.”

Tim Reddinger casts a line on the Ohio River in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Reddinger has lived along the Ohio River his entire life, working for most of his career in the steel mills that once lined the riverfront. As a child, Reddinger would come to this spot with friends. Back then, the water was so dirty, the kids would have to flick oil off their lines before recasting them in the water.

The decline of industry was devastating to the region’s economy, but Reddinger says one positive side effect is that more people hang out on the river here. That’s true in Pittsburgh, too.

“We’ve been working to make the river an exciting cultural place for the city,” says urban designer Nina Chase, who works with a nonprofit called Riverlife. Her organization has overseen the development of a system of parks and trails along Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. With a price tag of $130 million, it hasn’t been cheap. But Chase says it was a wise investment.

“That $130 million in investment has actually triggered $4.1 billion in investment in riverfront and adjacent riverfront development projects downtown.”

Now Riverlife is trying to bring Pittsburgh’s recreational vision downstream to smaller communities. They recently received a grant from the Benedum Foundation (which also funded this series on the Ohio River). Chase says Riverlife is trying to encourage a culture of recreation all along the Ohio River. And they aren’t alone.

Thom Way has been trying to lead his downstream city, Steubenville, Ohio, in this direction. Standing by the river, Way says many towns like his are still struggling economically from the downturn of the steel and coal industries—and they’re trying to figure out what’s next.

“As the communities search for identities, there’s opportunity for growth and direction in areas of outdoor recreation, art, food diversity, cultural diversity,” he says.

A few years ago, he founded the Urban Frontier Organization to promote this type of creative economic development in the upper Ohio Valley. His goal is to “reactivate” forgotten or neglected assets—including the river itself.

One thing he’s pushing: Water sports, like kayaking, canoeing and rafting. He says recreational opportunities serve not only as a healthy lifestyle choice for local residents; they’re also powerful incentives for younger generations to locate in the region.

Pittsburgh has been ground zero for riverfront revitalization in the region. Riverlife’s Nina Chase says a $130-million investment in parks and trails along Pittsburgh’s riverfronts has spurred $4.1 billion in development—and helped transform the public’s perception of the city’s rivers.

There are other projects like Way’s along the Ohio River, and some adventure outfitters and renters say they’ve seen increases in business over the past decade. But can recreation and tourism really be a major economic driver? There isn’t a lot of research on the economic impacts of river recreation in the Ohio Valley. But further downstream on the Mississippi River, nature-based recreation is one of Iowa’s largest industries.

In a survey by Iowa State University, half of respondents said they took regular trips to state rivers, and portions of the Mississippi were among the most popular spots. Mostly, people reported taking day trips. Heaviest use was reported by young, educated people who earn a decent paycheck. The most popular activity? Relaxing. That includes fishing, wildlife viewing and hiking along river trails.

And these “relaxers” spend an estimated billion and a half dollars each year—just kicking back.

But will this work on the Ohio River, which still has a reputation as one of the dirtiest waterways in the country? Many Ohio River towns see their futures in rebuilding heavy industry—not recreation. Shell is building a new ethane cracker in Beaver, Pennsylvania. And two other cracker plants are being considered in the region. New spinoff industries are already gearing up.

Riverlife’s Nina Chase says, just as in Pittsburgh, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. There’s room on the river for industry and recreation.

“You have to be creative with land use and points of access, but you can do both and have them work well,” she says.

Chase says towns that want a future that includes river recreation will need leadership and vision to create a new identity in the region.

Are We Heading for a Hydropower Boom on the Three Rivers?

The hydroelectric power station at the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River (pictured above) is one of the larger hydropower projects in Pennsylvania—generating enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. But many smaller dams on the Three Rivers aren’t being used as power stations. And some say putting those existing dams to work could give the region a valuable source of renewable energy.

Behind a chain link fence, Paul Jacob watches water spill over a dam on Neville Island—a 1,200-acre stretch of land in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh that’s a hive of industrial lots and chemical plants. But to Jacob, the white froth at the base of the Emsworth Back Channel dam—built in 1936—represents an opportunity.

“The water over that dam—that basically is unused energy,” Jacob says. “You’ve got a substantial flow of water.”

Jacob is the chief commercial officer for Rye Development, a Boston-based company proposing to build a hydropower plant at Emsworth and nine other dams in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. If approved, the projects could come online as early as 2019.

LISTEN: Are We Heading for a Hydropower Renaissance?

They are part of what some are hoping is a renaissance for hydropower—the oldest renewable energy resource. Only three percent of the nation’s 80,000 dams have hydropower installations on them, and some developers, like Rye, are hoping to piggyback their turbines on this pre-existing infrastructure.

Emsworth is part of the Army Corps of Engineers’ extensive system of locks and dams along the Ohio and Mississippi river systems. This decades-old system is designed for flood control, navigation and to maintain water quality. But Jacob also sees a wealth of untapped power. The powerhouses Rye Development is proposing to build on the dams would direct some of the river flow into underwater turbines—basically, a 12-foot propeller—and generate electricity from it.

Jacob says there’s not much to it.

“The type of turbine we’d be using was first designed in 1909, and it hasn’t changed much since,” he says. “People have been using hydro for 10,000 years or so, so there’s not a lot of mystery to it.”

To Rye Development’s Paul Jacob, the waters flowing over the Emsworth dam just east of Pittsburgh represent an untapped source of renewable energy for the region.

At 12 megawatts, the Emsworth dam is a modest-sized project. It could power only 6,000 to 12,000 homes. That’s a tiny fraction compared to the million or so homes a big coal-fired power plant or a major hydro plant— like the Hoover Dam or Niagara Falls—can light up. But the combined output of all of the company’s projects in the region would add up to 200 megawatts—enough to power up to 200,000 homes.

“It’s a carbon-free resource, and once it’s built, it’ll just operate,” Jacob says. “The life of these projects is extremely long compared to most other resources. So it makes a good contribution—adding a renewable resource that’s also available on a 24-7 basis.”

By comparison, wind and solar are more intermittent renewable energy sources: When the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, they can’t produce electricity. So adding reliable sources of power that generate electricity at all hours is a big push for people trying to get more renewables onto the grid. Advocates for hydropower say their resource could fit the bill.

Fast-growing wind and solar may garner a lot of attention. But hydropower is still the biggest source of renewable energy in the country—accounting for 50 percent of all renewable energy and 7 percent of all electricity in the U.S.

“It’s talked about as the ‘silent renewable,’” says David Zayas, senior manager for regulatory affairs and technical services at the National Hydropower Association.

Zayas says hydropower has been around so long, some people assume there’s no room for it to grow. But the U.S. Department of Energy says the industry could grow by 50 percent over the next three decades.

“The myth is that hydropower is all tapped out. I think Pennsylvania is a really good example of that not being the case.”

In fact, Zayas says with its plentiful rainfall and dammed rivers, Pennsylvania ranks sixth in the country in potential for growth in hydro.

A potential renaissance in hydropower construction could be impacted by the election of Donald J. Trump. Trump has vowed to do away with President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which gave states incentives to construct hydropower plants.

Jacob says he doesn’t know yet how a Trump presidency will impact the industry, but he doesn’t think it will hurt his company’s own business plan. He says the alternative energy targets set by states and individual companies, like Google, are helping get more clean energy on the grid.

“One of the biggest drivers, nationally, is on the corporate side,” Jacob says. “Corporations are focusing on having renewable portfolios of their own. We’re seeing that interest from a broad swath of companies, and that’s not driven by any regulatory moves from the federal government.”

Environmental groups have often frowned on hydropower because big, new dams can wipe out habitat and displace homes and businesses. But some environmental groups are latching onto the idea of building them on pre-existing dams like Emsworth. Lindsay Baxter of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council says in those cases, we might as well take advantage of dams where habitats have already been altered.

“Where you have a previously disturbed environment, sometimes those can be retrofitted to produce power with very little or no impacts on the environment,” she says.

With its plentiful rainfall and dammed rivers, Pennsylvania ranks sixth in the country in potential for growth in hydro.

But some worry that new hydropower plants—even on existing dams—could be bad for rivers. State and federal wildlife agencies worry they can deprive fish and wildlife of dissolved oxygen.

“All aquatic life, even though they live in water, they need air to breathe,” says Rose Reilly, a biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers’ Pittsburgh District.

Dams act like aerators in aquariums, infusing Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers with oxygen. A hydropower plant funnels some of this water into turbines, instead of letting it tumble over the dam. This could drop the rivers’ oxygen levels, which already run low during summer.

“If you put in the hydropower turbine, there’s little or no aeration, so you lose the benefits provided by the dams,” Reilly says.

Rye Development will need to negotiate with the Corps of Engineers over how much river flow—and dissolved oxygen—it can divert for its projects. But oxygen isn’t the only thing hydropower plants could impact.

Since fish thrive on the oxygen-rich waters near dams, the vast majority of fishing in the region happens close to dams. Putting powerhouses onto dams could subtract from the already limited access that anglers have to the rivers, according to Rick Lorson, area fisheries manager for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

“A lot of these rivers, being in industrial-type areas, do not have a lot of access to the riverbanks,” Lorson says. “So we have to be very careful and concerned about losing any of that.”

That limited access was on display on a recent afternoon near the Highland Park Dam on the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, a few miles from where the river flows into the Ohio. It’s another Corps of Engineers dam Rye Development is eyeing as a site for a future hydropower plant.

Rob Walters, executive director of Three Rivers Waterkeeper, steers a motorboat close to the dam, on an unseasonably warm fall afternoon. Walters’ group monitors water quality on Pittsburgh’s rivers, which have slowly seen fish populations rebound after decades of industrial pollution.

Three Rivers Waterkeeper, Rob Walters, has mixed feelings about new hydropower developments in the region. He’s in favor of renewable energy but is concerned about the impact projects might have on the still-recovering fisheries.

At the side of the dam, Walters spots a man on a spit of rocks, just below where the powerhouse on Rye’s Highland Park dam project would be built. The man sits in a chair he’s brought down to the shore. Next to him: a cooler, a bait bucket and a fishing rod. Walters says, from the looks of it, the man is after catfish.

“There are some huge flathead catfish up here,” Walters says, with more than a little envy. “That guy’s probably having the time of his life.”

Walters doesn’t know what the final plan at Highland Park will look like, but he’s worried this catfish spot could get wiped out by the hydropower plant. He’s in favor of clean energy, but he doesn’t want it to come at the cost of the region’s still-recovering rivers—and those who use them.

“To the gentleman that’s up there, this is his Yosemite,” he says. “Why should we take that away from him?”

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