List of Dams and Reservoirs of The Susquehanna River - Human Impacts

Human Impacts

And by making it more Susquehanna specific.

The dams have both a positive and negative impact on human society, outside of the environmental impacts above.

River dams have long been associated with power generation. In the past dams powered mills directly. Today dams are used both for direct hydroelectric generation and to form pools for cooling other forms of generation. Dams create navigable stretches of river where they may have been unnavigable before. The first dams at Sunbury, Pennsylvania were to support year round ferry crossings.

The creation of dams does have negative impacts. Communities on the river edge are displaced, such as Conowingo, Bald Friar, and Glen Cove, Maryland in 1928. Longitudinal river navigation is impeded. Although the historic Susquehanna was very difficult to navigate most of the year. Timber rafts could come down in the spring high water, but very few boats went up the river, before the canals were built. The Conowingo Dam is located near "Smith's Falls", where John Smith had to turn back while exploring the region in the early 17th century due to the impassable rapids.