How many people bitching about it paddle the river often enough to make an economical impact on the area?

If its a lowhead dam in or close to a fairly large city its OK to alter it using pulic money, but a private company doing the exact same thing in an area that would probably be burdened heavily by public funding is bad?  Come on now.   There are many worse things being done by private companies on public land than that, those are the things people should be getting passionate about.

I don't have a firm opinion on the rights or wrongs of altering river features, my point is simply that you can't argue that one type is OK(lowhead dams and public money) and the other is not (construction debris and private money).