Dam decisions are crucial. Dams are costly and long-standing artefacts which provoke enthusiasm in some for their utilitarian benefits and hostility from others for associated environmental damage, forced human displacement and risk of financial burden. Defenders of valued landscapes become adversaries of the dam builders. Analysis of the politics of disputes over selected dams in North East England brings out issues with global implications. A variety of outcomes resulted from the interplay of motives and values of dam engineers, industrialists demanding water supply, politicians, local...