Program Manager

Berkshire environmental group is on the hunt for ghost dams, and their search has nothing to do with Halloween. The Berkshire Environmental Action Team-led project "gets into the weeds" to map these undocumented structures, reducing the environmental risk surrounding associated habitats. October 6, 2026 Although it is already October, conservation protectionist Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) is conducting a "ghost dam" mapping project that has nothing to do with spooky season. The nonprofit group is spearheading a fieldwork effort to identify and map old or undocumented dams remaining on rivers and streams that aren't registered or listed on an official state inventory. According to BEAT Executive Director Brittany Ebeling, "there are thousands of aging dams across the region, and many of them are not on the map, they are not accounted for, and yet the risk they pose amid the changing climate is still very real." Although some of the dams are very large, they have bypassed registration protocols because, as Ebeling surmises, documentation hasn't caught up with the proliferation of the structures. In some cases, the dams are on private property and are not known to municipalities, or they were built without the full knowledge of local authorities, such as a structure used to create a swimming hole. Now dilapidated, some dams may have served an industrial purpose at one point, including powering a mill. Ghost dams may pose a flood risk, be a challenge to fish that need to move up or down a stream, or, since dams increase the temperature of the water flowing in rivers, constitute "a whole set of climate-resilience considerations," Ebeling said. In some cases, dams that historically served industrial uses may even pose a risk of contamination, she said. "I think that we are, in some ways, just as a region catching up to the reality of what having these structures means for planning purposes," Ebeling said. Along with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission as administrators of the approximately $400,000 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant that funds the project, BEAT is partnering in the action with Greenagers, Trout Unlimited, the Housatonic Valley and Hoosic River Watershed associations, and advisor The Nature Conservancy. Where are Berkshire County's ghost dams? Within the Berkshires, the likely locations of these dams "remain to be seen," Ebeling said, adding that the structures are probably scattered throughout the region. However, areas with industry or mills are likely spots, while other sites could be "surprising," she said. For instance, BEAT has been working with the City of Pittsfield and a private landowner open to of a six-foot dam on his property, one that is non-jurisdictional, meaning it is not found on any map. "You would think something of this magnitude must surely be known and documented, but it doesn't always necessarily correspond to size," Ebeling said. The two-year process involves collecting information from data sets, culvert assessments, historical societies, recreational groups, and other watershed entities, as well as individual community members who report dam sightings while hiking in the woods or find one on their property. BEAT is encouraging residents who find ghost dams to file a report on its website. This information will be compiled into a public map and will form the basis of fieldwork methodology. Next spring, a team from youth environmental group Greenagers, BEAT staff, and volunteers will be trained as "citizen scientists," researching, documenting, and measuring such dams, Ebeling said. In the nine days since the website was activated and news circulated about the project, she said a number of community reports have come in as well as positive feedback from other watershed organizations based in the Commonwealth that are interested in the protocol used by BEAT, a feat she calls "the bigger picture." "Throughout this process, we are also going to be really meticulously documenting our own methodology and process," Ebeling said. "We are doing this so that other watershed organizations or community groups throughout the Northeast could replicate what we're doing with very few resources and simply create their own public data set for their own purposes. We know that this is a problem throughout the entire Northeast." What's next? BEAT participates in the Berkshire Clean, Cold, and Connected Partnership, a 2021 state collaborative aimed at building climate resilience, protecting cold-water fisheries, and restoring aquatic life in the area. The entity works with groups that specialize in dam removal or repair, with the information gained from the local ghost dam project to be used to "open the conversation" between the owners of these structures and community resources as to the next steps in the landscape of unmapped dams. For Ebeling, the "unknown" is intriguing, considering where the plotting will go once the initial project is complete. "It's possible we'll find 20 dams; it's possible we'll find 200 - it's very hard to say," she said. "So, we hope, in phases, to figure out how large the scope of the issue is and then to build relationships. At the end of this two-year project, we will be relationship-building with private dam owners who maybe don't know much about what their rights and responsibilities and liabilities are concerning dam ownership."

First permit to clean up old mine waste issued for WA state under 2024 'Good Samaritan act' Sep 11, 2026 The US Environmental Protection Agency has approved the first permit under the its new "Good Samaritan" law to remediate abandoned mine workings. The permit has been issued to Trout Unlimited, a fishing and sportsmen focused nonprofit that engages in riverine conservation all over the West. The Good Samaritan act passed in 2024 with broad bipartisan support after 20 years of campaigning by groups including Trout Unlimited. The legislation was championed by US Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Jim Risch (R-ID) and US House Reps Celeste Maloy (R-UT), Mary Peltola (D-AK), and Susie Lee (D-NV). It facilitates state agencies and other third parties to clean up abandoned mines more quickly and effectively, tens of thousands of which are known to pollute rivers and streams across the country. As historic sites often a century old or more whose owners are long gone or deceased, it's rare that any party can be held responsible for cleaning them up. At the same time, federal laws treat organizations that volunteer to clean up these mines, including state agencies and private groups like Trout Unlimited, as if they are the very polluters who left behind the mine waste. This complicates permitting and long-term legal and financial liability for any mine pollution remaining after cleanup, disincentivizing the same. The Good Samaritan law created a pilot program to provide limited liability protections for up to 15 low-risk projects conducted by state agencies or other third parties. "Hardrock abandoned mines are a scourge on the landscape. No one is required to clean them up, so every day they release their toxic brew of zinc, cadmium, lead, and arsenic into our drinking water and trout streams," said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited in a statement. The permit thusly issued to Trout Unlimited will address ongoing contamination of Toroda Creek in Okanogan County, Washington state, about 140 miles northwest of Spokane. At the site, known as the Bodie Mine, historic mine tailings will be removed and streambanks restored to reduce contamination of the stream by arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and other toxins. The project will improve the health of the broader watershed, part of the Columbia River Basin. "Bully for the EPA [for] authorizing the first abandoned mine cleanup under the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024," Wood added. "May their efforts lead many more states and communities, non-profits, and yes, even mining companies, to lend a hand and make our waters more fishable and swimmable." While many Americans have never picked up any mining jargon, it's likely they've seen mine tailings before. If you've driven by a mining site and seen the long metal chute depositing gravel and dirt into a large conical pile - those are tailings, and they are either stored in landfill type installations or as a slurry in a pond or dam. Back in the day, however, they were often just stored on site wherever there was space. Many ore bodies that contain useful and valuable metals like zinc, gold, or silver, may also contain - as Wood mentioned - arsenic, lead, and other toxic heavy metals. The process of grinding and separation that allows for the extraction of the former also liberates the latter. Left in piles of derelict tailings, they present a much greater risk of toxicity than when they were underground. GNN recently reported on Trout Unlimited's activities contributing to the truly hair-raising numbers of central California coho salmon running up rivers along the Mendocino coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had been contracting Trout Unlimited to remove barriers in the Navarro, Big, Garcia, and Noyo River watersheds for years leading up to the salmons' return.