The use of turbines from dams to provide power was a brilliant idea until water levels started running lower than normal. The water waste from humanity is directly contributing to portions of it, aside from drought conditions affected by pollution, widespread fires battled, and more adds to the depletion thereof. When humanity is relying on power provided from dams to handle the demand, they are essentially relying on the assumption that water levels will always be there to provide it. The Hoover Dam provides power to the southwestern portion of the USA that has a large number of people.
The Hoover Dam turbines provide a great amount of electricity to those living in the states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. The water level of Lake Mead currently affects the dam’s ability to provide power from the large sized turbines. When the water level of Lake Mead goes down from conditions affecting it, the dam’s ability to provide power directly affects the power companies supplying consumers. Fortunately, the water levels gained back some of that full amount while still shy of where it once existed. As stated, “But the increased elevation isn’t enough to reopen any of the four boat launch ramps closed in the past decade, Holland said” (Shine, C., 2011, para. 9). This definitely indicates that there is currently promise to recovering with close to the original levels even though it may not be excessively soon.
The prospect of Lake Mead’s water level returning to the fullness of the past would be a desirable outlook. As stated, “Snowpack in southern and eastern Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada is still far below normal” (Berwyn, B., 2014, para. 3). The very dry conditions in New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern Nevada muc...
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There are nine dams in and directly leading to New York State’s Letchworth State Park. These dams have been built for a variety of reasons and affect nearly 400 miles of freshwater rivers in the Genesee River Basin of Western New York (Fish, n.d.).
Ice dams in the Clark Fork area that backed up Glacial Lake Missoula actually caused some of the largest floods known to man. As ice will float, these ice dams would periodically rise up and burst, catastrophically flooding the Rathdrum Prairie, eastern Washington and into northern Oregon. Locally, these floods brought in glacial till and deep deposits of outwash that obliterated the St. Joe River once running through the Rathdrum Prairie. The southernmost edge of these deposits terminated where Coeur d’Alene exists today, damming the old St. Joe River and creating Lake Coeur d’Alene (Alt and Hyndman, 73). The new lake received the entire flow of the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe Rivers, more than could be absorbed through the gravel deposits, thereby causing the lake to overflow and seek a new course, now known as the Spokane Ri...
In December 1936 the United States Department of the Interior authorized the Lower Colorado River Authority to construct a low dam at the site of an old crossing on the river known as Marshall Ford. Marshall Ford Dam was completed in 1941 through the collaboration of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) of Texas. The original purpose of the dam was to prevent floods from devastating Austin, TX. The capital city had substandard heavy damage from previous floods since its establishment in 1846. Soon bureaucrats came together to create the Colorado River Project, wanting to create a series of dams along the Colorado River to create hydroelectric power and serve to control floods and droughts. With Buchanan dam well under way with a total of six planned Marshall Ford was the only dam designed primarily for flood control and the only dam in which USBR oversaw construction. With money scarce there was debate over the final height dam and it reservoir capacity. This issue resolves itself with the flood of 1938. Once completed Marshall Ford Dam would flood 65 miles of the Colorado to form Lake Travis, creating the largest of the seven reservoirs known as the Highland Lakes.
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).
The one feature common to the Hoover Dam, The Mississippi river and the three gorges dam is that they all tried 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.
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.
Droughts in Wyoming’s future are unpredictable and uncertain; however, Richard Guldin of the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station in Fort Collins, Colorado, has made some predictions for the water situati...
Lake effect snow was not a quick discovery compared to other forms of weather. In the 1800’s when there was no satellites or weather radar to track a storm, early day forecasters would have to get observations from spotters across the country and provide a one and two day forecast on the type of weather that may ...
A third intake pipe was added by SNWA in September 2015 beneath Lake Mead in order to provide drinking water to southern Nevada residents (“Third,” n.d.; Tracy, 2015; “Nevada,” 2016). In 2016 the construction of a “low lake level pumping station” began and is meant to be finished by 2020, in addition to this project new reservoirs are being sought (“Low,” n.d.; “Nevada,” 2016). The plan of the SNWA appears to be to continue pumping and searching for new water resources, it would seem that the water supply problem has not been
Capps, D., Clague, J.J., Pelto, B., Pelto, M. “Rising ELA and Expanding Proglacial Lakes Lead to Initiation of Rapid Retreat of Brady Glacier, Alaska.” 69th Eastern Snow Conference. Nichols, 2012. Web. 9. Feb. 2014.
With the rising sea level it has already submerged a northwest island in the Hawaii region. This island goes by the name of whale skate. This island has disappeared and the rest of the islands up in that region are at steak for being under water. The islands are housing wildlife that are found nowhere in the world except these islands and most of these animals are endangered.
“Scientists attribute the change partly to greater winter precipitation and partly to a warmingof the permafrost and active layer, which they believe is now transporting more groundwater.”
A scenic by-product of Hoover Dam is the gigantic reservoir of Lake Mead, a stunningly beautiful water recreation wonderland. This boating, sailing, fishing and house-boating paradise attracts over 10 million visitors a year. Lake Mead covers 550 miles of majestic shoreline and 247 square miles of area which is twice the size of Rhode Island. Its capacity of 1 1/4 trillion cubic feet of water would cover the entire state of Pennsylvania one foot deep.
"The Future of Hydropower." Macalester College: Private Liberal Arts College. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. .
Changes are also being seen in snowpack, glaciers, sea ice and permafrost, and rain and snowfall rates, mostly in colder climates. Snowpack is decreasing due increasing temperatures causing snow to melt faster and earlier, and higher rainfall and less snow in high altitude cold areas, It is expected in the future that sno...