Blog Post by Zoe Hord, Junior Associate
Across the world, rivers and waterways are obstructed by dams, culverts, and other barriers constructed by humans.[1] Only one-third of the world’s longest rivers remain in their natural form as free-flowing bodies of water.[2] While many of these barriers and structures once served a purpose to control water flow or maintain economic functions, many dams today are no longer maintained, no longer used, and are causing immense ecological problems for waterways.[3] Scientists have found that this fragmentation of waterways across the world is one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss.[4]
Many governments have woken up to the problems that aging and unused dams bring to the environment. Recently, the European Union (EU) has made huge steps towards removing these artificial barriers. The EU recently adopted the Nature Restoration Law, which sets targets to restore biodiversity and degraded ecosystems, including restoring once free-flowing waterways.[5] This recent law poses a large difference to the United States’ current legal and policy framework for governing dam removals. In the United States, most dam removal regulations occur at the state level rather than the federal level. 97% of dams in the United States are owned by private entities, state or local governments, or public utilities, while the federal government only owns 3% of dams.[6] New York’s current regulations on dam removals are a useful depiction of the regulatory gap between the EU’s recent regulation on dam removal and how the United States is working towards dam removal.
River Fragmentation
Fragmentation of freshwater rivers impacts freshwater species by impeding migratory routes to and from spawning and feeding grounds.[7] Dams can disrupt natural flow and drainage patterns, prevent vital nutrients and sediments from reaching connected waterways, and may even exacerbate flooding during major storm events.[8] As river systems are continuously impacted and altered by dams and other barriers, 40% of America’s fish species have been listed as threatened or endangered, and migratory freshwater fish have declined an average of 81% between 1970 and 2020.[9] These issues are happening on a global scale as dam infrastructure is failing.
New York’s Current Dam Removal Laws
Despite growing scientific consensus about the ecological harms of dams, the US legal authority of dam removal remains limited. In New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has authority over dams through permitting and a safety-based framework.[10] Under DEC’s existing regulatory law, the state can only require the removal of dams when the structure poses a risk to life, property, or the protection of natural resources of the State.[11] Despite the regulation including the phrase “to protect natural resources,” a court would likely not allow a sole ecological issue of waterway fragmentation to compel DEC to remove a dam to protect natural resources. New York’s Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) § 15-0507 gives DEC the regulatory authority to ensure dam safety. Courts would likely find that DEC compelling dam removal solely based on factors like ecological degradation would be exceeding the reach of statutory authority.[12] While ecological degradation may be a “natural resource” impact, it does not constitute the type of hazard that the legislature gave DEC the power to compel dam removal. Dam removal may only be compelled when the removal arises from hazardous conditions like a structural failure or other safety-related condition. Therefore, where a dam is structurally sound and poses no safety risk, DEC may not compel the removal, even if the structure causes significant ecological issues. Under current New York law, DEC cannot compel the removal of obsolete and aging dams solely for the ecological harms they cause.
The EU Nature Restoration Law
The European Union’s Nature Restoration Law (Regulation 2024/1991), poses a different view on removing dams and aquatic barriers. In July 2023, the Nature Restoration Law was passed by the EU Parliament and Council and was finally approved by the ENVI Council in June 2024.[13] In comparison with New York’s current regulatory framework, which focuses on dam removal solely for safety reasons, the EU Regulation holds that dams must be removed for other reasons, including ecological issues and fostering aquatic connectivity. The law states initiatives which include an obligation to remove man-made barriers to reach a goal of 25,000km (15,530 miles) of free-flowing rivers and streams in the EU by 2030.[14] Under the Nature Restoration Law, all EU Member States are required to remove a number of artificial barriers along their rivers by 2030.[15] To begin the process, Member States will first make an inventory of all artificial barriers within their rivers and then begin to determine which dams should be removed based on their functions, prioritizing those that are unused.[16] Guidance has additionally been provided to the Member States for possible funding sources and other projects that have been successful with dam removal. This Regulation is crucial for the future of reconnecting the waterways of the EU. It shifts the burden from environmental advocates to governments to mandate proactive restoration rather than solely voluntary efforts.
Lessons for Governments Moving Forward
Many governments across the world, including New York, should look to the EU’s Nature Restoration Law to push for sustainable measures to reconnect waterways and restore aquatic habitats for the species that rely on them. New York’s current regulatory framework demonstrates how safety-focused dam legislation can limit a government to not be able to remove dams for sole ecological concerns. By contrast, the EU model shows how legislatures can explicitly authorize environmental agencies to restore river connectivity to achieve a sustainable future. For New York and similarly situated jurisdictions, it is likely that the European law will not be transplanted as a whole, but it shows what a similar legislature could strive to enact to encourage the removal of unused dams. As climate change intensifies flooding, disrupts ecosystems, and accelerates infrastructure decay, local and national governments must push to restore aquatic connectivity through the removal of dams. It is also important to slow down and fight for the prohibition of building new dams that pose no real economic or other beneficial purpose. New dams are currently planned along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Congo, and the Mekong basin.[17] It will be important to continue to share the harms of dams and fight for progressive ecological restoration laws. The EU’s Nature Restoration Law suggests that transforming current obstructed rivers into free-flowing rivers should be treated as a shared ecological goal. This view of ecological restoration may be the next step in global environmental governance.
[1] Removing Barriers to Reconnect Rivers, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY, https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/tackle-climate-change/climate-change-stories/removing-barriers-river-health/ (May 16, 2024).
[2] Id.
[3] Why Are Dams Getting Removed and How Will This Change Our Rivers?, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE, https://www.fws.gov/story/2024-02/why-are-we-removing-dams (Feb. 20, 2024).
[4] Damiano Baldan et. al., The Effects of Longitudinal Fragmentation on Riverine Beta Diversity Are Modulated by Fragmentation Intensity, SCI. OF THE TOTAL ENV’T, S0048969723053287 (Dec. 10, 2023).
[5] An Introduction to the Nature Restoration Law, DAM REMOV AL EUROPE, https://damremoval.eu/nature-restoration-law/ (Aug. 9, 2023).
[6] Anna Normand, Dam Removal: The Federal Role, CONGRESS.GOV, https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46946 (Mar. 15, 2024).
[7] Jeffery C. F. Chan et. al., Global Consequences of Dam‐Induced River Fragmentation on Diadromous Migrants: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis, BIOL. REV CAMB PHILOS SOC., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12407043/ (May 7, 2025).
[8] Dam Removal, RIVERKEEPER, https://www.riverkeeper.org/our-work/campaigns/dam-removal (last visited Jan. 8, 2026).
[9] Removing Barriers to Reconnect Rivers, supra note 1.
[10] Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) § 15-0507; 6 NYCRR § 673.17.
[11] 6 NYCRR § 673-17.
[12] See Boreali v. Axelrod, 517 N.E.2d 1350, 1357 (1987) (stating that when a statute is enacted for a specific purpose, an agency cannot expand its regulatory authority outside the specific purpose without express legislation).
[13] An Introduction to the Nature Restoration Law, supra note 5; Historic Step for Wetlands: Nature Restoration Law is Adopted, WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL, https://europe.wetlands.org/historic-step-for-wetlands-nature-restoration-law-is-adopted/ (June 17, 2024).
[14] Lucrezia Lozza, Why Europe is Dismantling Its Dams, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240229-why-europe-is-removing-its-dams (Mar. 5, 2024).
[15] Directorate-General for Environment (European-Commission), The Nature Restoration Regulations (Feb. 2025), https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/cd10f41c-fd61-11ef-b7db-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
[16] Id.
[17] Why Europe is Dismantling Its Dams, supra note 14.