Hetch-Hetchy Valley was first discovered in 1871 by John Muir. Muir referred to this valley to

Finally, the Elwha dam was removed in 2012 again for similar reasons as the previous dams. An additional reason for the Elwha removal was the dam’s dangerous materials, PCBs and asbestos [3], polluting the surrounding area, the cost to remove and rebuild the dangerous materials was astronomical compared to the economic and environmental benefits of removing it. The dam was drained in a slow controlled fashion similar to Glines Canyon, and the original flow channels were even restored. This resulted in salmon population restoration, and more biodiversity in the river system that spread to the

In 1935 the Hoover Dam was completed forming Lake Mead, providing flood control, reservoir storage, power generation and regulates the downstream flow to the Lower Basin States. [footnoteRef:20] In 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam was completed forming Lake Powell, providing the Upper Basin States with enough reserve capacity to allow them to meet their annual obligation of 7.5 Million Acre Feet (MAF) to the Lower Basin States, allowing the Lower Basin States to use the allocation.[footnoteRef:21] As a consequence of the construction of the Hoover Dam and the Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado?s flow often evaporated in Mexican sands close to the Delta.[footnoteRef:22] Around the 1970s, the Cienega de Santa Clara had shrunken by 500 acres. Nevertheless, due to the following wet decades, the Cienega was resuscitated to about 10% of its original acreage in the 80?s and 90?s.[footnoteRef:23] Currently, the Cienega is a 40,000 acre wetland that exists due to the return flows from the Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District near Yuma, Arizona.[footnoteRef:24] This Cienega is the home of less than 100 members of the Cucapa tribe and is the habitat of several endangered fish and birds, including Desert Pupfish and Yuma Clapper Rail.[footnoteRef:25] [19: D.F.

Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to

He found that the Colorado River was the best source. In 1925, the Department of Water and Power (DWP) was established. Now what came to be called the Colorado River Aqueduct, needed financing to be accomplished. Voters from the region approved a $2 million bond to perform the engineering needed for the aqueduct. In 1928, an act of the State Legislature, created the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), and its purpose was to construct the Colorado River aqueduct to supply water to Southern California. By 1931, voters issued another bond for $220 million that would start the construction of the aqueduct. By 1941 the aqueduct was completed stretching 242 miles from the Colorado River to its final holding reservoir near Riverside, California. The Colorado River Aqueduct consists of more than 90 miles of tunnels, 55 miles of conduit, 30 miles of siphons, five pumping stations, 5 treatment plants, and 9 reservoirs. All of this can supply about 1.2 million-acre-feet of water every year, which is more than a billion gallons a day. This caused phenomenal growth of Los Angeles, San Diego and neighboring areas. The aqueduct is capable of lifting more than 1600 cfs to a static height of 1600 feet as it takes a path through mountains and deserts. Upon the completion of the Colorado River Aqueduct in 1941, the Municipal Water District began to wholesale Colorado River water to its member agencies. Today those agencies include 14 cities, 12 municipal water districts, and a county water authority. More than 130 municipalities and many unincorporated areas are served by this project of the DWP’s and Mulholland’s vision. Before Mulholland died on July 22, 1935, he lived to see the inaugurations of the Colorado River Aqueduct and Hoover Dam, constructed in the spirit of significance he had always

The gorgeous New River/Greenbrier Valley is located in the southern portion of West Virginia. It is east of the Hatfield-McCoy Mountains, southeast of the Metro Valley, south of the Mountain Lakes, and southwest of the Potomac Highlands. Its counties include Fayette, Raleigh, Wyoming, McDowell, Mercer, Summers, Greenbrier, and Monroe. It hosts a few major cities, such as Beckley, Lewisburg, Fayetteville, and Princeton, which are all county seats. This tourist region offers a variety of activities for tourists, such as white-water rafting, the Greenbrier River Trail, the Tamarack, Winterplace, the Midland Trail, and the Coal Heritage Trail. The trails are an entertaining way to show tourists the history of the area, but the Tamarack is an artisan center located in Beckley, and Winterplace is a ski resort.

Beside these arguments, there is also a more quantitative side to the debate. The ecological detriments of the Glen Canyon Dam have been well-documented. Extensive changes were brought about in the Colorado River ecosystem by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. Most of these alterations negatively affected the functioning of the system and the native aquatic species of the river. The reduced supply and transport of

“One, it’s tied to putting salmon back in the river. Two, there is no funding for dams or river recirculation technology that would maximize Sierra water runoff and lessen the economic devastation to some San Joaquin Valley farmers.” (McEwen 1)

In 1973, the James Bay Project was initiated, which indicated the damming of many rivers and flooding the surrounding areas. Since then, it became progressively under the review of the community, internationally.

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

Muir believed that the stunning beauty of the Yosemite valley deserved to be protected so that people from all around the world could view. From the first time Muir saw the Sierra Nevadas he regarded them very highly, “a landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still appears as the most beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the Great Central Valley of California” (Muir 2). Muir goes further in detail as to why it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, “Along the top and extending a good way down, was a rich pearl-gray belt of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark purple, marking the extension of the forests… from the blue sky to the yellow valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of light ineffably fine. Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light” (Muir 2 and 3). This beauty that Muir describes in his book The Yosemite was one of the major contributors to his founding of the Yosemite valley as a national park (Muir 1-3).

The Grand Coulee Dam(G.C.D) changed Kettle Falls forever. Kettle Falls was a peaceful river where Native Americans fished every year. It is said that around 3,000 fish were fished every year. Then in 1933, everything changed when the Grand Coulee Dam started construction and finished on June 1, 1942, that is almost a decade. I feel like it is good that we built the Grand Coulee Dam. The Dam has great effects that have benefitted Washington. Two of them are the jobs people got in the Great Depression and Irrigation we got.

We farmers of San Francisco live a simple life, we take little but give to the greatest extent and all we ask is for the expulsion of the Raker Act. The act that will allow San Francisco to dam Hetch-Hetchy, which is a main river in Yosemite National Park. While major consequence and major contribution will arise, the end does not justify the means with the creation of a dam and the signing of the Raker Act.

1. Why was the building of the dam first proposed in 1919 and by whom?

     As previously mentioned, the Boulder Dam was one of the most famous, and certainly most expensive (with the whole project costing about $385 million) public works program. To provide jobs and much needed money to unemployed Americans, the Bureau of Reclamation, under President Hoover, authorized the Boulder Canyon Project on the Colorado River in 1928. The entire project included a hydroelectric power plant and a reservoir to control floods of the Colorado River and supply power to the Pacific Southwest. The dam reservoir is Lake Mead, which can store approximately 28 million acre-feet of water, making it one of the world’s largest artificially created bodies of water. Besides providing many jobs, the project responsible for the officially named Hoover Dam (as of 1947), added about 3 million acres of national parks and monuments and expanded

Unfortunately for this growth, the demand far exceeds the available supply. The Bureau of Reclamation completed the last major dam (Glen Canyon) in 1966. The Bureau built several smaller dams, along with Glen Canyon, under the auspices of the Colorado River Storage Project