The Colorado Flood Analysis

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

The Buffalo Creek flood of West Virginia is believed to be the most devastating coal relate disaster in West Virginia history. The flood occurred in the Buffalo Creek area of Logan County on February 26, 1972 when three dams broke and released 132 million gallons of water and coal waste known by miners as “gob,” and is a thick sludge-like material. The gob contains many toxic chemicals and pollutants such as mercury and arsenic that are left behind from the coal mining process. The wastewater would lie in settling ponds and dams until it could be properly disposed of. The water that was left over from processing coal would be disposed of in two different ways. Some of the water would be pumped from the dam back to the “tipple”, otherwise

On that little dirt road with only dead plants around me, I had run out of gas, which forced me to get out of the car. With no money to pay for more gas I had to push my car to the nearest place I could find a job. I passed a couple houses which I could help clean the dust or farm for 50 cents or so but I decided to keep moving forward. I pushed the car for a couple miles before it started to get dark. It was to early in the day to become dark, so I knew a dust storm was coming. I saw an abandoned shack a couple feet ahead, so I grabbed my luggage and ran to it. There was no hope for my car, I didn’t have enough time to push it somewhere safe or enough luggage to hold it down from the winds. About 20 minutes into the storm, I watched my car fly away with the dust.

The Colorado RIver is best known for being the principal river of the southern United States and Mexico, but it soon could lose that title. Running about 1,500 miles long, the river is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southern desert lands of North America. However over the past decade or so, the river has begun to deteriorate. There are many causes and solutions to the deterioration of the Colorado River.

I was talking with a co-worker this evening about my assignments for the week in my online classes. When I told her we were studying the intermontane west; she told me about a place in eastern Washington State called the scablands. I had never heard the term before, so naturally I was intrigued. Luckily for me the topic was covered in our book when discussing the Great Missoula Flood. The Great Missoula Flood was caused over a period of time during the last ice age when a massive dam buckled under the weight of the water that melted from the polar ice caps (Hardwick, Shelley & Holtgrieve.) The scablands are only a portion of the total area that is encompassed in the area affected by the Great Missoula Flood. According to HugeFloods.com “The

I chose to read “What The Thunder Said” by Bayard Godsave. Originally published in “This Land: Winter 2016,” Godsave tells a story looking back on a flood that happened May 2015 in Comanche County, OK. Coming from a 5-year drought, the residents of this area were excited to finally see some rain until it caused flooding of the streets and many residences. Godsave discusses his thoughts on how he felt then to how he feels now, comparing the flood to that of living. Remembering back to wonder how he would ever get past this, Godsave realized that water levels and balances out, as does life. Taking this natural disaster and turning it into a learning experience, Godsave really made his story believable and touching by using his firsthand occurrence

Rain hit my head, raced down my face and back. We trudged through the mud, sinking in our boots feet deep. All we could see was our breathe, all we could hear was the wind slapping against the trees, rain hitting, and our boots squishing in the mud. We expected the weather to be like this, the weather channel had been going crazy all week about a storm passing through our way around 5 pm today. Just as predicted the rain became heavier, fog thicker, and sky darker. But our search group did not give up; we had been searching months for the beloved missing girl named Emma Barrett in the Elliott State Forest in Oregon. She was last scene heading into the forest with her parents on a Tuesday afternoon for a hike, hours

I believe that this is also going to be a problem in the future. The greenhouse gasses are raising the temperatures of our atmosphere. The Colorado river is 19 percent below averages century. I agree that the rainfall will affect the rivers droughts. Scientist our continuing to make predictions on what the river will be like years from now. We are the ones who controls this problem. This river supplies water for 40 million people if it dries up that is more water we have to find to supply for 40 million people. I agree that if we don't fix this drought there will be a huge problem. There has been a lot of rainfall recently and I think that could potentially help the river with its drought. These states are some of the hottest states in the

The flooding and raining in Texas is due to a storm system that has accumulated a lot of evaporation through the central and northern Rocky Mountains because of the water cycles track. It is also precipitating immensely over the central and northern plains. This huge amount of rain is giving Iowa, eastern Nebraska, and South Dakota a high flooding rate. The 2 feet of runoff from the rain will have a great affect on the flooding situation. Because of the excess groundwater the water levels are rising which also contributes to the flooding also. The erosion from the flooding and rain is going to damage people's backyards, deposit anywhere, and cause many problems.

The purpose of this report is to geologically evaluate the potential hazards for flooding in Hazard City. This report will include a detailed historic and extrapolated Stream Gauge Data Worksheet, as well as a graph of the Discharge Frequency Curve expected on Clearwater River. The report will provide Hazard city with my scientific analysis, conclusions, and provide recommendations concerning potential flood damages.

Prior to settlement of the western United States, the Colorado River roamed free. Starting from cool mountain streams, the river eventually became a thunderous, silty force of nature as it entered the canyons along its path. The river nourished wetlands and other riparian habitats from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the delta at the Sea of Cortez in Northwest Mexico. Settlers along the river harnessed these waters mainly for agriculture via irrigation canals, but flooding from spring runoff wreaked havoc on agricultural land, prevented development in the floodplain and full utilization of the water, a waste in the eyes of western farmers. In order to meet current and future water demands in the west, the Federal Government

A watershed is like a natural drainage system that allows both rain and snow to be deposited into bodies of water. Watersheds are formed in all shapes and sizes depending on the hills and ridges. One of the bigger ones in colorado is the south platte river basin. Water that falls here mostly goes into the platte river which flows through Greeley, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Longmont. Watersheds are important because without them we wouldn’t have bodies of water scattered around the world which we use for many different things including agricultural use, recreational use. We don’t know it but without watersheds we would be struggling to get a good source of water. We must do something to help out theses watersheds for all the work they do

As described in the Vancouver Sun article the flood was triggered by a unusual warm temperature and a storm dropping in total 148mm of rainfall in all of Chilliwack vicinity and 85mm specifically in Hope. Climate was considerably warmer melting the snow, which was carried away by the rain from the rock-covered hill above the highway. It is know that the warmer your temperature in your location the grater rate of weathering will occur, which is exactly what happened in Hope. It was described by Pete Teilmann that it was a wet and muddy day January 9th 2002, with a abnormally high temperature than a regular day in January.

The nerves in my stomach were coming back, the figure in the yellow coat, who by this time was standing beside me with the car door open, told me to get in on the driver’s side. I hesitantly got out of the car, put my jacket over my head to try and keep dry and ran around the front of the car to get in on the other side. In the ten seconds it took me to get from the passenger’s side to the driver’s side of the car, I noticed that the my jeans were drenched with rain from my knees too my ankles. My sneakers were wet and I began to feel to cold water dripping down my socks to my heel. I got into the car and hurriedly slammed the door of the car, not noticing that my jacket was stuck.

It’s cool and dark outside of the car as we drive, dark clouds hovering over the plains as fat, heavy drops of water fall from the full clouds. The lights of cars and streetlights and cars blur with the flow of water on the side windows, our speed not fast enough to force the drops to flow back along the windows. It’s not until we start on the highway and the water starts to move that I find my objects of interest in front of me in the form of the rain and the memories of my childhood that surface with them.