Many argue that mankind has a psychological need to control the world around them. However, right or wrong, this notion has lead to some of the greatest technological advances of harnessing power such as dams.
The Emerald Mile, written by Kevin Fedarko, is a true story based on the adventures of the handful of river guides who were set on breaking a record of the fastest river run through the Grand Canyon. It’s set in about 1983, the year when so much snowmelt flooded the Colorado River Basin that it threatened to overrun the Glen Canyon Dam. Although catastrophe was brewing and the dam was releasing biblical volumes of water, a talented, energetic river guide named Kenton Grua and two others risked jail and death by sneaking The Emerald Mile
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– their wooden dory – into the vortex of this flood, just to see if they could row the 277-mile canyon in under 48 hours. The book is about much bigger things: huge acts of human creation, such as Glen Canyon Dam – an engineering marvel that marked the breakthrough of ambitious infrastructure in the U.S. In the article “Dam nation: A geographic census of American dams and their large‐scale hydrologic impacts,” William L. Graf explains, “The nation's dams store 4 acre‐feet of water per person. Water resource regions have experienced…increases in reservoir storage...but the most rapid increases in storage occurred between the late 1950s and the late 1970s” (Graf 1). The Glen Canyon Dam was finished and opened in 1966, leading to the increase in water storage during the two decades mention in Graf’s article. This increase in water capacity makes resources more readily available for the communities that will use the power coming from the dam for electricity. Without human innovation and the spark of technological advancements in the 1900’s, we would not have dams -- one of the most powerful tools in harnessing energy from nature. In The Emerald Mile, Fedarko explains how the arch in the dam is beneficial, because it gives the dam the optimal amount of water flow through in order to get a high amount of power from the source, “Glen’s Hydroelectric power plant was devoid of a single curve or bend that might have enabled it to harmonize with the face of the dam” (p. 8). Controlling the Colorado River took much more effort than building the dam.
The river, despite many efforts, found new channels to travel to every time the engineers thought they were getting close. Kevin Fedarko describes how difficult it was for the engineers to control the river, “After an all-out campaign that had cost in excess of $3 million, the breach was finally plugged and the Colorado was forced to resume its course through the delta to the Sea of Cortes” (p. 59). He not only mentions the work done by the men, but also the expenses that went into trying to harness the power of the river for resources. The research that goes towards building and designing dams has improved tenfold over the past 50 years. In an essay written by a student attending Harvard University, the student explained the great effect the dam has had on the surrounding communities, “It was felt that a dam that could control the river would also provide hydroelectric power, eventually rendering the dam self-financing. The growth of Las Vegas and Southern California as major metropolitan centers also depended, to a large extent, on the availability of water and power… the dam possessed an epic quality that stimulated the national imagination. It was apparent that the meaning of the dam itself was beyond even that of a structure that equaled the vast landscape it inhabited. The dam, and the people who built it began controlling nature in a new and powerful way” (par. 3). The author explains how years of advancing dam technology have given the nation a “stimulated imagination” and that has brought forth many of the world’s newest technological advancements. The dam has brought many people ideas and inventions to build and grow on. Dams are the gateway for life-changing tools for harnessing the power that we can get from renewable resources like water and wind that then eliminate harmful chemicals and debris for
nature.
Eden Robinson’s short story “Terminal Avenue” presents readers with the dystopian near-future of Canada where Indigenous people are subjugated and placed under heavy surveillance. The story’s narrator, Wil, is a young Aboriginal man who struggles with his own inner-turmoil after the suicide of his father and his brother’s subsequent decision to join the ranks of the Peace Officers responsible for “adjusting” the First Nations people. Though “Terminal Avenue” takes place in Vancouver there are clear parallels drawn between the Peace Officers of Robinson’s imagination and the Canadian military sent to enforce the peace during the stand-off at Oka, Quebec in 1990. In writing “Terminal Avenue” Robinson addresses the armed conflict and proposes
Throughout life people encounter a numerous amount of obstacles, some of these obstacles can be tougher than others. These obstacles don’t define who you are, how the situation is handled does. In the book The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Jessica encounters a tremendous obstacle that life could throw at her. Jessica has had to learn to adjust her life from the way that she used to live. Her life is changing and she has to decide if this accident defines who she is going to be while being surrounded by the love and comfort of her family.
Through the course of the book, White confidently proves that in the end the Columbia River was always in charge and nature will always overcome mankind’s efforts. The book showed that the previous thought of mankind being the boss of the environment and that mankind dictates the terms is shown as untrue. The Organic Machine known as the Columbia River will restore its balance, different societies have tried to govern the river but the river ends up governing them, and human modifications might affect the river but nature and the environment will always see victory.
When dams are created, such as the Glen Canyon Dam, their done so in hope to manipulate water flow for our benefit. These benefits, or positives come from a wide rang of categories. Some include hydroelectric power, controlled water supply, flood control, recreational areas for leisure activities such as boating and fishing. However, as we have progressed since the building of the damn in 1963, it seems we have dug up a lot more negatives than positives.
It was the great Hoover Dam, a great National Treasure. It was the feat of mankind which rose 726 feet above the bedrock of the river, altering the geography of an entire region, creating the largest artificial lake in the world and holding enough water to cover the entire State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet. It was this dam that managed to provide for the entire annual electricity use of merely 2% of the United States population while simultaneously endangering four native species to the Colorado River, destroying the estuarine ecosystem,
Dams continued to take over our nation’s rivers. After seven years of protests from environmental activists, I found on Wikipedia that Congress still gave the go ahead to flood Yosemite’s National Park in 1913. Then during the great depression, America started its two biggest projects, The Hoover Dam and The Grand Coulee Dam. According to John Harrison in “Grand Coulee Dam: History and Purpose”, both these dams created thousands of jobs and were thought of as national treasures. World War II created a huge demand for hydropower for building plans, ships, and bombs I found out from the article “History of Hydropower Development”. If it flowed it was dammed. At one point half of America was being powered by hydropower. Our country was becoming more and more dependent on electricity and technology struggled to keep up. Finally president Nixon passed the endangered species act. The Endangered Species Act Overview explains that this act protects animals that are affected by economic development. If any dam is at fault for endangering a species they are accountable by
The San Joaquin River Project was a plan completed in 2009 made to recreate San Joaquin River, which was dried up after dams were built in 1942. The San Joaquin River restoration is to bring back water flows from the San Joaquin river to the Friant Dam, and to revive the salmon and other fish population. There are two articles debating whether they either agree or disagree with the project. I chose the article, “River Plan Too Fishy For My Taste Buds”. This article came from The Fresno Bee newspaper, which correspondingly means it came from Fresno. The type of people who live in Fresno are farmers, workers who work for other people, democrats, and people who care more about jobs rather than the environment. I agree with this article from The Fresno Bee because I believe Bill McEwen, the author of this article, is the better expert because of his credentials and achievements. I will be using the article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope” by Daniel Weintraub to back up my argument.
Outside of China, the United States is the most-dammed country on the planet. Counting only dams taller than fifty feet high, the U.S. has some 5,000 dams that range from giant hydroelectric dams such as the Grand Coulee in Washington State to flood control dams in the southeast and dams that provide water for irrigation in California. Overall the United States has as many as 2.5 million dams of one sort or another. The design and construction of many of these dams took place between 1930 and 1975. This 45 years period is known as the golden age of dam building, starting with the construction of the Hoover Dam beginning in 1931. By the 1970s the golden age of dam construction began to come to an end with increased concerns of the impacts of dams on their surroundings. To better understand this time period I will look at the construction of Hoover Dam during the 1930’s followed by an examination many of today’s arguments for and against dams [i].
Our use of science and engineering sets us apart from all other organisms. We are constantly modifying the land, oceans and atmosphere. It is estimated that we have over 2,500 dams in Michigan. Of the 2,500 or so dams in Michigan, only about 114 are utilized for hydropower production. According to the Department of Natural Resources, “Most of the hydropower dams and related facilities are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with the exception of a few small projects that do not provide energy to the regional power grid.” In other words, although it’s a different form of energy that is beneficial to the environment of Michigan, the amount of hydropower dams is not enough to make a significant impact. The DNR go on to say the following: “Hydropower dams only provide about 1.5% of the power produced in Michigan because Michigan's rivers are relatively small and flat in comparison to the larger projects in Eastern and Western States. Altogether, the hydropower dams produce only about 400 megawatts of power. The 10 largest hydro dams in Michigan, only 10% of all hydro dams, produce about 47% of the hydropower in the State. Hydropower production is a very small component of Michigan's energy production and is unlikely to grow
For thousands of years dreams of permanently diverting stream water from the Salt and Verde rivers to the arid desert lands of Arizona, through a myriad of canals, would finally come to fruition in the early twentieth century. Flooding and or droughts would always seem to destroy their early attempts at diverting the water. At the end of the nineteenth century, frustrated landowners formed a committee and with the help of Theodore Roosevelt came up with a Reclamation Act that took effect in 1902. This Act birthed the Salt River Project a multipurpose project that would generate hydroelectric power, deliver water, and provide flood protection. The Salt River Project was a dream come true, constructing massive dams and canals, that would supply
Grand Canyon Dam, moreover called Hualapai Dam, was a proposed dam in the lower Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, in northern Arizona in the United States. It would have been arranged close Bridge Canyon Rapids in a to an extraordinary degree extreme and disengaged bit of the chasm, 235 miles (378 km) downstream of Lee's Ferry and at the most noteworthy end of Lake Mead. At first proposed in the 1920s, the endeavor was really considered by the U.S. Power of Reclamation for a period of more than a quarter century the mid-1950s to 1968. In case collected, the dam would have stood 740 feet (230 m) high, molding a store broadening more than ninety miles (150 km) upstream, including thirteen miles (21 km) along the edge of Grand Canyon National
The Hoover Dam is an engineering marvel completed in the year 1935. The dam spans the Colorado River in the Black Canyon, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas. The dam provides hydroelectric power and irrigation in the arid regions of Arizona and California. At the time, it was the tallest dam in the world and it created the largest man made lake in the United States. The dam was built before the luxuries of modern tools and technology, so the workers faced many challenges during the construction. The Hoover dam has an intriguing history, a difficult construction, and used revolutionary technology.
Hoover Dam, sometimes referred to as Boulder Dam, was constructed between 1931 and 1935 to harness the waters of the wild Colorado River. The dam was a challenging task for even the most experienced professionals. Many have called Hoover Dam a wonder of the modern world because of its unprecedented massive size and its designers’ ingenuity in overcoming obstacles that were considered impossible barriers at the time (Stevens).
In 2001the work began on the biggest dam project in history of the human kind. The place chosen was the Great Canyon in Colorado. After six months of heavy digging, workers had found something strange.
The federal government has taken action in requiring “each federal agency to review its dam-safety activities and to strengthen its dam safety programs” (Gunn, 2006). Dams are now required to be inspected annually, with a detailed report of the dam every three years (Gunn, 2006). Moreover, “Congress passed several acts authorizing a natural dam-safety program” which works to protect Americans from dam failure, in addition to installing more instrumentation to monitor the dam’s stability (Gunn, 2006). Sherard (1987b) proposes that having bureaucracies design dams is dangerous and should be avoided; Seed and Duncan (1987) added that it should be reviewed by an outside group of engineers to ensure that no possible design flaw has been over looked. The Teton Dam was an inadequate and unacceptably designed for this environment, and any unanticipated conditions and problems with materials, such as low quality, should be taken into account (Sherard, 1987b; Seed and Duncan, 1987). The wet seam was a new discovery and a lesson in the hydrogeologic properties that were a result of the situation created by the Teton Dam (Sherard, 1987b). An additional lesson is that filling the reservoir at the recommended speed, in controlled conditions is essential, so that it is possible to lower the