‘Ghosts of capitalism’: the push to dismantle America’s decrepit dams

The Stroock mill dam was torn down two years ago. Activists’ demands to remove dams are catching on. Photograph: Jess Dietz/Riverkeeper

On a muggy day in late August, George Jackman, an aquatic ecologist who works on habitat restoration, stood at the edge of Quassaick Creek in upstate New York.

The Quassaick, which flows through the small city of Newburgh, New York, and spills into the Hudson River, was unusually shallow after a summer with little rain. “It looks bucolic now,” Jackman said. “But it can be a raging torrent.”