The Hinze Dam

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

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

Even then, the proposal was rejected for a few years. At the time, San Francisco received water support from Lake Eleanor, but both the lake and the valley was demanded. There was much criticism to set up this dam by many conservatives and Muir himself. The proposal finally passed in 1913 even after much opposition from all over the country. This Hetch-Hetchy project began and the O’Shaughnessy Dam was built. The construction of this dam cost $100 million and 68 lives. This dam streamed water over 160 miles to reach the Bay Area. This project was further improved in 1928 when San Francisco voters approved of the $24 million payment, which was completed in 1934. San Francisco voters decided to give the Hetch-Hetchy project another improvement in 1947; $25 million was invested for a second pipeline from the reservoir. In 1961, over $100 million in bonds was used to develop and expand the project. In 1970, the Sierra Club wanted the restoration of the valley and the removing of reservoirs from both Eleanor Dam and O’Shaughnessy Dam. This idea and proposal was rejected in 1988 with the reason that it would cost too much funding to return Hetch-Hetchy to its original form and would bring about the water problem in the Bay Area. The movement to recover the valley was firm as Restore Hetch-Hetchy, a non-profit organization with Sierra Club members and other environmental organizations, was pushing studies to find an alternative and ways to

In addition, farmland has been destroyed because of the floods and the decrease in delta sediment. The dam has reduced downstream nutrients and sediment flow. And has seriously impacted neighboring river and seacoast ecosystems.

A perfect example of adapting the environment to fit our purpose is the Fort Peck Dam. The dam was created as a New Deal Project, to create hydroelectric power and to be able to control floods of the Missouri. The Fort Peck Dam construction employed around 10,500 men at its peak. In addition to Fort Peck itself, many little towns quickly came into existence to house the large number of workers coming to the area. During the construction of the dam, many aspects of the environment were modified. To create a sturdier foundation, the clay from the top of the river bottom was removed to get to the sand underneath. As with any type of construction there was many heavy equipment operations. Rocks were moved in from Malta, MT to line the dam. Most

Restoring a river? Completely possible when you have a dam holding all the water back. The San Joaquin River, the longest river in Central California, begins from the Thousand Island Lake and then reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Sacramento Bee’s Daniel Weintraub supports the plan with his article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope” where he explains the San Joaquin River Project’s stupendousness. The project plans to restore the San Joaquin River by increasing the amount of water released from the Friant Dam in an endeavor to restore the salmon in the river. Weintraub, a native of California, worked in the political field for twenty-two years, including the eighteen he worked for the Sacramento Bee. In Sacramento, republicans, big businessmen, and others live there abundantly. The San Joaquin River Project shows promise for the future and will partially reverse the effects of the Friant Dam’s placement.

It might have been better for who ever built the dam because now the cost is higher to take a ride along with a boat. Although now you must a use a powerboat.Therefore they end up making more money.

The articles describes the current status of the dam situation. As of Sunday, the water level of the reservoir was 852ft, 49ft less then when the dam first started to be in danger of overflowing.

The dam should be intended to decrease the measure of silt that are kept upstream and to augment the residue downstream.

The Laguna Dam district uses water from the Colorado River to irrigate millions of their acres. The Colorado River is one of our main sources of water from where we get our water to irrigate from. If we decide to expand and use more of that water, it is going to cut down the supply of water that others use. When we expand, we take more land and also take more water acres to irrigate the more land we buy. That can lead to building more dams and channels which means more money used and less water for everyone else. Some of the dams may also fail which can cause the irrigation systems that we already had to get destroyed.

The dams being built took away many amazing and flourishing fisheries and Indian grounds. Salmon and other wild fish struggling to get back upstream to their spawning grounds as fish ladders in the dams either were too hard to navigate or simply did not exist. For salmon it is lack of access “end of story”

With human development, industrial pollution and other factors all contribute to the deteriorated condition of the river, which makes it difficult to determine the dams’ environmental impact in isolation. CITE That said, the current operations of the dam hamper and potentially prevent environmental improvement of the Colorado. In order to preserve some semblance of the Colorado ecosystem, man must restore the natural processes that created the ecosystem. The real question is how to do that, whether via dam decommission or a less extreme policy change.

Historical Implications: Why have archaeologists and historians criticized the building of the Three Gorges Dam? Answer: the Three Gorges Dam because it flooded and destroyed a large number of important cultural and archaeological sites. The dam has caused a lot of ecological changes and approximately 1.3 million people had to move because of the creation of this dam. 3. Governmental Implications: What has been the unfortunate response of local government officials assigned to help families affected by the construction

The removal of a dam may seem like a daunting task, but in many cases it is cheaper to remove the dam than it would be to repair the issues. The average dam has the design lifespan of 50 years. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, “The average age of our nation’s dams is 52 years. By 2020, 70% of the total dams in the United States will be over 50 years old” (ASCE). There is a large need for old dams to be removed and replaced with new dams built to current specifications. In order to replace these dams, state and federal governments need to provide a large amount of funding. ASCE has stated in their infrastructure report card, “The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that the total cost to rehabilitate the nation’s non-federaland federal dams is over $57 billion. To rehabilitate just those dams categorized as most critical, or high- hazard, would cost the nation $21 billion, a cost that continues to rise as maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation are delayed” (ASCE). With limited funding, dam owners have moved toward a risk based decision-making process. The funding for rebuilding dams has only been going towards dams that are in the high hazard category and are close to failing. This is a growing concern as only dams that are about to fail are getting repaired. The number of dams that are considered high risk is constantly

Habitat changes will occur as well due to the effect of building the Three Gorges Dam. When water levels increase it can affect the way plants grow because plants grow at different depths of a body of water. Different fish live at different levels of water as well, which can offset their habitats (Power, Dietrich, & Finlay, "Dams and downstream aquatic biodiversity: Potential food web consequences of hydrologic and geomorphic change", 1996). The new habitats formed aren’t even recognizable because they ate such vast changes. Algae will have conquered the entire upper area of the