Compare And Contrast Hoover Glen Canyon And The 3 Gorges

767 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on dams with details

Hoover, Glen Canyon, and the Three Gorges. What do these three things have in common? They are all man-made dams. Throughout the world, man-made dams affect the three pillars of sustainability. A legend of controversy surrounding these dams has created a unique background story, as well as shown the positives and negatives of these man-made wonders.
I. Dams have been created by man throughout history.
a. Author Patrick McCully of Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams (2001), reports that the first dam was built around 3000 B.C. (p. 11).
i. It was known as the Jawa dam. ii. Today, its remains can be found in Jordan.
b. According to Dams as Aid author Ann Usher (1997), “a man-made dam is a cement wall that blocks the natural flow of a river” (p. 3).
i. …show more content…

There are two main functions of dams.
1. Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams author Patrick McCully (2001) reports that dams store water for river fluctuations as well as for energy and water demands (p. 11).
2. Another function is raising the water level upstream to generate electricity (McCully, 2001). ii. The Bureau of Reclamation’s article, “Hoover Dam: What is Biggest?” (2012), announced the largest dam is 984 feet tall while the largest hydropower dam produces 90 billion kilo-watts of energy per year (¶ 3-4).
II. Man-made dams have a positive impact on the environment, economy, and society.
a. In certain aspects, man-made dams are environmentally-friendly.
i. Man-made dams are a renewable energy source.
1. The article “Hydropower as a Renewable Energy Source” (n.d.) shows that man-made dams make up seventy-five percent of the United States’ total renewable energy.
2. This is equivalent to burning 200 billion barrels of oil (“Hydropower,” n.d.). ii. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s article, “Benefit of Dams” (2012) analyzes how dams prevent flooding by releasing the excess water in controlled amounts through floodgates (¶ 3).
b. The economy thrives through man-made

Show More
Related

  • How Did The Hoover Dam Affect The Three Gorges Dam

    367 Words  | 1 Pages

    The one feature common to the Hoover Dam, the Mississippi River and the Three Gorges Dam is that they all try to control nature’s swings, specifically in the form of flooding. Before the Hoover dam was built, the Colorado river “used to flood spectacularly.but after 1900 the Colorado provoked a vehement response” (Pg 177). The response was simple, but large. The U.S. built several large dams, including the Hoover dam, on the Colorado to decrease its flooding and increase power and irrigation. Unfortunately, just as human control of the Colorado’s flooding increased, its organisms and habitats were detrimentally influenced, and the water became more and more salinated.

    Read More

  • It's Time to Drain Lake Powell

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    The negative aspects of Glen Canyon Dam greatly exceed the positive aspects. The dam’s hydroelectric power supply is only three percent of the total power used by the six states that are served by the facility. There is a surplus of power on the Colorado Plateau and with more and more power-plants being created in the western hemisphere, Glen Canyon Dam’s power is not needed (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss). Although the ‘lake’ contains twenty seven million acre feet of water, one and a half million acre feet of water are lost yearly due to evaporation and seepage into the sandstone banks surrounding the ‘lake’ (Living Rivers: What about the water supply?). The loss of that much “water represents millions, even billions of dollars” (Farmer 183). If the government were to employ more water efficient irrigation practices, as much as five million acre feet of water per year could be saved.

    Read More

  • Colorado River Hydrosphere

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    20 dams have been built, many of them by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, along the River and the tributaries. The Hoover Dam, which holds back at the Black Canyon to form the reservoir Lake Mead, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. The Glen Canyon D... ... middle of paper ... ... nts for profit along the river's course can hardly complain when a river flows where it's supposed to go.

    Read More

  • Grand Coulee Dam

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    Grand Coulee Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River in Washington State, built by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser It is among the most famous dams in the United States. The reservoir it created is called the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake. The reservoir is named after the United States President who seemed to love dams and hydroelectric power and who was involved with the project through to the final completion of the dam. The dam was built as part of the Columbia Basin Project as a way to irrigate the desert areas of the Northwest United States. The dam started during the 1930s as a public works project and finished toward the beginning of World War Two. The initial construction plan was reconfigured during construction for more height. Its height was determined by the point at which the water from the reservoir began backing up into Canada. The scope and size of the dam is hard to comprehend. It is over a mile long and taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza, in fact, all the pyramids at Giza can fit within the base of the Grand Coulee Dam. The dam is so large that a truck at the base looks like a toy, this creates some perspective into the dam's true size. When the dam was completed in the early 1940s it was the largest dam in the world.

    Read More

  • The Debate Over the Glen Canyon Dam

    1590 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the years Glen Canyon Dam has been the spark for hundreds of debates, rallies, and protests. These debates have been going on for almost forty years now. The fact is that the dam created a huge lake when it was built, this is what bothers environmentalists. This lake is called Lake Powell and thousands of people depend on its tourists for income. The lake also filled up a canyon called Glen Canyon, some people say it was the most beautiful place on earth. The anti-dam side of the debate has its basis in the fact that Lake Powell is currently covering Glen Canyon. It was very remote so few people got to witness its splendor. This is probably the reason the dam was built in the first place, ignorance.

    Read More

  • Summary: The Tragedy Of The Commons

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    manmade levees, dikes, and other flood control measures, is a case in point. In a

    Read More

  • The Johnstown Flood

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dams made from dirt are very weak and the South Fork dam was built entirely with dirt. From an engineering standpoint dams made with dirt needed to be built ...

    Read More

  • A Modern Marvel: The Hoover Dam

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Hoover Dam is a modern marvel and a testament to American ingenuity. At over six million six hundred thousand tons and jetting seven hundred sixty feet from the canyon floor, six hundred sixty feet across the bottom and, one thousand two hundred forty four feet across the top, the structure is awe inspiring even to a modern audience. Three quarters of a century since its completion it still stands as a symbol of one of the greatest construction projects of the ages. The need for a dam to block the Colorado River was not a new idea when construction began in 1931, but had been mulled around since the dawn of the century. Flooding due to runoff from the Rocky Mountains had devastated crops, and a need for hydroelectric power increased the need for a dam. In 1922 Black Valley was chosen as the spot for the dam’s construction. No one construction company was large enough to take on the project alone, so a group of companies formed a joint venture in order to bid the job. The Six Companies Inc. made up of Morrison-Knudson, the J.F. Shea Company of Portland, MacDonald & Kahn Ltd, Pacific Bridge Company of Portland, Henry J. Kaiser, Bechtel Company of San Francisco were awarded the winning bid for the dam at forty eight million eight hundred ninety thousand nine hundred fifty five dollars. The construction management team had a Herculean task in building this behemoth and faced many problems in its construction. A few of the major issues posed to the team were diverting the Colorado River, provisioning the men and material to get the job done, and the actual construction of the Hoover Dam. The heights involved with project led to many safety obstacles that had to be overcame.

    Read More

  • How Did The Johnstown Pa Dam Collapse

    94 Words  | 1 Pages

    The South Fork Dam was a dam built 14 miles upstream of Johnston to protect against floods, The Dam was 72 feet high made out of mud and rock, the largest earth dam in the United states. On May 31, 1889 The village of Johnstown PA was flooded after the South Fork dam failed to contain the water and collapsed. The dam collapsed after several days of very heavy rainfall and released 14.55 million cubic meters of water killing over 2,000 people and causing damage of $17 million (equal to $453 million in 2010)

    Read More

  • The Deterioration of the Colorado River

    1463 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Colorado River is formed by small streams created by a huge amount of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains. The ecology and flow of the river varies highly by region. The river is divided into two different regions, the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin. Beginning in the early 1900s, western states began to build dams in the Colorado river, diverting the water flow to fast growing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix. The river now services over 30 million in the southwestern parts of the United States and Mexico (Patrick 1). Diverting the water of the nation’s seventh-longest river may be seen has a great accomplishment, however to others this is a great crime against nature. Over the past couple years the river has been running significantly low, since a drought has come up the southwest. At the lakes edge, “bathtub rings”, lines in the rock walls, can be seen showing the decrease in water level. It is recorded in some areas of the river that the water has lowered 130 feet since 2000. Some water resource officials say those areas will never be filled back to normal. The surrounding states must adjust to living with less water or further actions need to be taken to save the river’s water. There has been some talk about adding water to the river to replenish the river but nothing has hap...

    Read More

  • Irrigation Affected Yuma

    1753 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Colorado River, before Yuma was built, ran wild. The Colorado River met up with the Gila River in the table-flat floodplains. When irrigation was first created people used gates to control the water flow to the fields. But, before they used the gates a dam had to be built in order to control how much water is flowing. After the dam was built the farmers would open the gates to the fields and let water run in, after the amount of water was needed the people would close the gates and the river kept flowing. This made farmer’s lives

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast of Nuclear Energy and Alternative Energy

    1351 Words  | 3 Pages

    The “Hydropower” National Geographic. n. d. a. d. a. d 1 April 2014. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/hydropower- profile /.> “Hydropower as a Renewable Energy Source” naturalresources.house.gov. Web.

    Read More

  • Project Management, The Building Of The Three Gorges Dam

    1860 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will probably be finished by 2009 and will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

    Read More

  • The Hoover Dam: Significance To The Civil Engineering And Society

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Hoover Dam, at the time of its construction was the largest concrete dam in the world. The Hoover Dam was constructed under the Boulder Canyon Project, which was authorized in the year of 1928, one year prior to the start of The Great Depression. The Hoover Dams

    Read More

  • Hydropower

    1514 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hydropower, the use of water to power machinery or produce electricity, provides the most renewable energy in the United States, and uses alternating current in most modern plants ("Hydropower…”). Hydropower relies on the water cycle and is a clean fuel source; it doesn’t pollute the environment like plants that burn fossil fuels. It is by far the most efficient way to generate electricity, being half the cost of using nuclear power, two-fifths the cost of using fossil fuels, and a quarter the cost of using natural gas ("Wind and Water…”). Also, hydropower is not subject to market fluctuations of embargos, and the average lifespan of a facility is 100 years. Hydropower also has many non-energy benefits such as water supply, flood control, navigation, irrigation, and recreation. However, it does face many environmental challenges such as impacts to aquatic habitats, aesthetic alterations of landscapes, changes to water quality, and interruptions of marine life ("Hydropower…”).

    Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Hoover Glen Canyon And The 3 Gorges

Open Document