The Rock Island Dams: The Columbia River Basin

3.5 million miles of water run throughout the United States; and since the country’s conception, over 80,000 dams have impounded 600,000 miles of these waters [1]. Dams were originally constructed to provide water to towns and establishes energy sources for mills and later hydroelectric plants. Because these dams were constructed decades ago, they’re reaching a critical point of obsoleteness where they cause more harm than good. Dam removal is increasingly popular across the country to address the ecological problems including habitat loss and sedimentation, despite potential for downstream harm, removing dams is more environmentally and economically cost effective than upgrading them. The Marmot, Glines Canyon, and Elwha river dam removal projects each highlight different challenges of dam removal, but overall

These dams lead to want for more an in 1953 Congress authorized the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Project.

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

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 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.

Dams. They’re such a controversial topic in today’s society. Some people think they’re doing good for our world, while others believe that they’re negatively impacting the atmosphere in which we live. They don’t take into consideration all the harms they’re doing for creatures such as fish. Animals aren’t the only things they’re affecting. These dams are playing a huge role in transportation for shipping goods. It’s not a good thing at all. In fact, people’s recreational activities are also being limited due to the dams.

BPA, a power marketing agency of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), supplies roughly half of the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest. The power that BPA markets comes primarily from 31 Federal hydroelectric projects (known collectively as the Federal Columbia River Power System, or FCRPS), and one non-federal nuclear plant. BPA is a co-manager of the Federal hydroelectric projects, but it does not own or operate them. Such responsibilities belong to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau). For the purpose of this case study, Bureau of Reclamation owns and operates the dams and the Army Corps of Engineers builds and maintains the dams.

“The Three Gorges Dam will be the largest hydropower station and dam in the world, with a 1.2 mile stretch of concrete and a 370 mile-long reservoir and 525 feet deep.”[4] To put that into understandable dimensions it will be the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, and twice as tall. “The reservoir created by the backflow of the dam will extend 360 miles up river to Chongqing, a distance equal to nearly half the length of California.”[5] So what is the point of this monstrosity? The major prospective benefits will be power generation, flood control, and increased navigability of the Yangtze River. Many people debate whether these attributes will actually be as beneficial as builders expect. The drawbacks of the dam are its flood plain and the effects of the flood plain, environmental damage, resettlement, historical and cultural loss, and the ideas of speculators about whether or not some of the dam’s abilities are true.

The NWAPA, or North American Water and Power Alliance, was a plan created by Parsons Corporation in 1964 that would have vastly changed the country we live in today. The idea was to create a series of manmade rivers, canals, and dams spanning the entire nation as well as parts of mexico and canada. through this system water could be drained from flooded areas or bring more water to regions suffering from drought. The economic revival that could be brought about from this kind of project is staggering, millions of jobs would be needed to complete the construction, and the nation’s industrial complex

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

“Drought and flood in the American Southwest disabled the growth of the agricultural industry”.(Construction of the Dam). The impact of the Federal Government had on the Hoover Dam change the Southwest economy for the best. Before the Hoover Dam the employment rate was low, there were severe drought that were hard to overcome, and when the rain did come the flooding was hard to control. The impact of the Hoover Dam in the Southwest was tremendous by being able to control the flooding of the Colorado River and provided a irrigation systems for farm lands. In addition the Hoover Dam also provided a sources of electrical power for the Southwest. Those are some good examples of the influences of the Hoover Dam in the Southwest but of course there

In my country, two prominent rivers were described as Mother Rivers, Yangtze river (Chang jiang) and Huang river, they not only cut through the nation from the east to the west, but also play an important role in serving as a renewable energy option that continue to be put to good use. For example, Peter Gleick (2013) indicates, "On the Yangtze river alone, there are an estimated 50,000 dams including the largest in

     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

The Colorado river provided the Southwestern states with the water source they needed to provide for the population, agriculture and energy. California has been seeing a population growth and that meant more water they needed from the Colorado River. The Colorado Basin states feared California would establish priority rights to Colorado River water (Gelt, 1997). Delph Carpenter, a Colorado attorney, suggested a compact to determine each state’s individual rights to the Colorado River, before the Federal government intervenes, therefore each state agreed of an interstate compact to share the water. The boulder project, or what is known the Hoover Dam, was a major advantage to California, which gave them more access to the water supply. Arizona, however was at a disadvantage, especially for the southern-central population. Arizona Central Arizona Project was to solved the water scarcity and the project was started, when Arizona asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a judicial apportionment (Gelt, 1997). After eleven year

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