Environmental Impact Assessment On The Hoover Dam

According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.

Water is one of the most precious resources, which support the life of almost everything in the world. Indeed, the world is covered by 75% water, but most of this water is not suitable for human consumption or use. On the same note, the world has been increasing its consumption of water due to the increasing population, leading to increased demands. The increased water consumption, which has been a result of high population, is worrying because the matter may lead to massive water shortages in the future.

The Grand Coulee Dam, located in Eastern Washington, was one of controversy, risk, and a point of no return. While the water captured made the desert area blossom in agriculture and it powered some large cities, it created a sense of accomplishment, that humans can control Mother Nature. While many people were very excited for this new construction – which gives power and resources - at the time, some thought it should not be allowed, they are not proud of containing the Columbia River. In this analysis, I am going to focus on the economic and social effects that the Grand Coulee Dam created in its build.

The Three Gorges Dam is an unfinished project which will be the largest dam ever constructed on the planet Earth. It is situated in China on the third largest river in the world – the Yangtze. The dam has been debated over since the 1919 and is still a hot topic of debate because of its many pros and cons. In 1994 construction began on the dam, and it is expected to be finished by the year 2009. The massive dimensions of the dam are mind boggling and its functions – if the dam actually works – are truly remarkable; however, with such a large structure also comes difficulties, sacrifices, and cynics. The goal of this essay is to lend an understanding of the dam itself, the prospective benefits of

Dam projects can serve many purposes. They compensate for varying amounts of water that nature may send down a river at a given time, or they may serve as a resource to generate hydropower for the local population. The construction of these complicated feats of engineering is an expensive, time consuming task. For whatever reason a dam is built, it will almost always pay for itself in the energy it produces or

Hydroelectric dams as energy sources have many advantages; they provide a renewable energy source, it can take the place of fossil fuel usages, and while being built dams can significantly help jobs in the development industry (Perlman). However, these dams are extremely costly, not just economically but environmentally and socially as well. These costs can be demonstrated by looking at the consequences of other dams. Three Gorges in China: release of methane gases, deforestation, water pollution, ecosystem disruption. Glen Canyon Dam: sedimentation, endangerment and extinction of species endemic to the area, poor water quality, crippling of ecosystems downstream—and these are just the environmental impacts! All of these

The thirst for water has lead individuals and organizations to build dams across rivers at an alarming rate. During the early 1900s dams were being built so fast it was no longer big news when a dam was completed. These structures provided controlled irrigation water and hydroelectric power to the communities not only close to the reservoirs and dams, but also provided irrigation water and hydroelectric power to communities many miles away from the river. Negatively blocking the flow of the river has impacted fish ecosystems, increased evaporation of water, and flooded intricately important landscapes. These negative impacts, it can be argued, affect the humans living downstream or within the flood plain of the dam site. Dams

The Hoover Dam is legendary. Having visited and stood on it’s bridge many times, there is no way to describe the incredible power that one feels just setting foot near the place. In 1922, the Reclamation Service presented a report calling for the development of a dam on the Colorado River for flood control and electric power generation. Even before Congress approved the Boulder Canyon Project, the Bureau of Reclamation was considering what kind of dam should be used. Officials eventually decided on a massive concrete arch-gravity dam, the design of which was overseen by the Bureau's chief design engineer John L. Savage. Construction of Hoover Dam began in 1931, and the last concrete was poured in 1935, two years ahead of schedule. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the dam on September 30, 1935. The power plant structures were completed in 1936, and the first generator began commercial operation in October of that year. The vital statistics describing Hoover Dam and its benefits are quite impressive on paper, but having visited the location and lived in areas of the country who benefit from the dam, the overwhelming size and impact of the project is made real. The dam is thick at the bottom and thin near the top, and would present a convex face towards the water above the dam. The curving arch of the dam would transmit the water's force into the

The Hoover Dam, located on the common state boundary of Arizona and Nevada and operated and maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior 's Bureau of Reclamation, is one of the largest hydropower projects in the United States. Completed in 1936, the primary purpose of the Hoover Dam is to control the waters of the Colorado River during flood seasons and to eliminate the annual threat of flood damage in order to protect the fertile regions below. The dam also provides a stable supply of irrigation water and various domestic use supplies for southern California and southwest and central Arizona by storing the annual Colorado River runoff. Finally, the Hoover Dam produces hydroelectric power at an average generation rate of 4.5 million kilowatt hours per year in order to serve nearly 8 million California, Arizona and Nevada residents. This paper will discuss a broad overview of hydroelectricity, the construction of the Hoover Dam and Hoover Powerplant, the specifics of the electricity produced at the Hoover Powerplant, the consumption and usage of that hydropower and the impacts of the recent regional drought conditions to hydropower production.

“The completion of the Hoover Dam acted as a catalyst in transforming the Southwest United States into a modern society.” (Discovering U.S. History 2003). The irrigation canals from the dam turned Imperial Valley, California into one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the world. Furthermore, the water supplied by the dam allowed the Los Angeles area to flourish during the spring of 1941 (Discovering U.S. History 2003). During this time World War Two had begun and without the power of this dam the war would have been extremely rigorous without the industrialization of cities. With Lake Mead being the largest water reservoir during this time helped sustain enough water for Las Vegas’s population boon. Not to mention the Hoover Dam protected the Western population by controlling a massive flood on June 6, 1983 (Discovering U.S. History 2003). While people obtain inexpensive necessities from the dam, the reservoir of Lake Mead is slowly transforming into a new salt lake. Contradictory to before, the Bureau of Reclamation in 1977 warned that the Hoover Dam would not meet the expectations of water supply needed for civilians in later generations without help. Lastly, after the opening of the

In southern Nevada, there’s a relatively small town with great history, run by its laws of old as it was initially ahead of its time. All the way back to the early 20th century, on December 21, 1928, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act that authorized the building of Hoover Dam and creation of charming, unique Boulder City. Thus, Boulder City, or, so they called it at the time, the “Boulder Canyon Project Federal Reservation” began its journey to existence.

The United States has led the world in dam building for the past 100 years. The dams are used for a variety of purposes, including hydropower, irrigation, flood control, and water storage. Even though dams can be a benefit to society, they can also cause a lot for harm to the rivers. Dams degraded river ecosystems, depleted fisheries, and diminished the recreational use of nearly all of the nation’s rivers. Many of the dams are unsafe, old or no longer serve their intended purposes.

A surge in the global population in the past century has brought about an immense strain on the commons. It is estimated that 35% of the global population suffers from “severe water stress” (Wada et al., 2010). Only 3% of the world’s supply of water is freshwater, with 68.7% being locked away in the glaciers, 30.1% in ground water, and 0.9% in surface water bodies (Shiklomanov, 1993). This makes groundwater the most abundant fresh water source readily available for human consumption. Estimates for global groundwater withdrawal are between 750 and 800 cubic kilometers per year (Konikow et al., 2005). Severe land subsidence and depletion of the groundwater table is occurring in both developing and developed nations. This has made

Manzoor, K. P. (2011). The global water crisis: Issues and solutions. IUP Journal of Infrastructure, 9(2), 34-43.

Water management encompasses a long history, going back to the makes an attempt in prehistoric times in response to seasonal changes in water availability. Water management was crucial during the transition from hunting-gathering to farming, and have become nonetheless a lot of necessary with the emergence of cities, industrial towns, and administrative centers. Water management has never entirely been a matter often technical intervention. It’s embedded at intervals a good diversity of cultural, social and political arrangements. Water management was important to guarantee water system to the places where water was required once it absolutely was required, as well as obtaining eliminate excess water or contaminated water. Water management