The Rindge Dam in Malibu, a 100-foot dam constructed in 1926.
Most drivers on Malibu Canyon Road pass right by the hulking, useless 100-foot-tall dam without even realizing it’s there. But if they pulled off onto the right turnout, walked about 15 feet and peered over the edge, they’d glimpse it: a huge gray dam entirely filled with sediment. The crumbling infrastructure project is one of the last vestiges from the days when the now-affluent coastal community was dominated by one landowner, known as the “Queen of Malibu.”
“Like a million people a year drive up and down that road,” said Russell Marlow, a senior project manager for the South Coast Region for California Trout. “This is in the middle of Los Angeles County, and right there is a major dam that needs to be removed, and we can easily see the impact that it has.”
Marlow compared Malibu’s Rindge Dam to the four Klamath dams on the northern edge of California, which were finally dismantled this year in the world’s largest dam removal project. It wasn’t easy; the Klamath dams only came down after decades of advocacy by tribal communities. Those dams caused the decline of Chinook salmon, by degrading water quality and blocking migratory routes. Like the Klamath dams, the Rindge Dam has caused decades of negative impacts to fish like the Southern California steelhead, plus other impacts to the broader watershed.
Even Malibu’s famous beaches are impacted by the dam, which blocks sediment that would otherwise travel to the coast. Both the Klamath dams and the Rindge Dam are on California Trout’s “Top 6 California Dams Out” list, which prioritizes the state’s dams most urgently in need of dismantling.
