Preview

Grand Coulee Dam Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
369 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Grand Coulee Dam Analysis
This documentary is narrated by a man named Ben Knight. He is a directed and cinematographer for many film. This film is about the importance and consequences in which dams will provide. Dams are very expensive, take years to build and they are also can be very deadly during the construction phase. However, the cost of removing a dam is just as expensive for tax payers and city legislatures. Dams do provide hydropower energy to generate mills and also provide water storage. Two of the most common dam are: Hoover Dam in Arizona and Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. The Elwha Dam is located in Washington and is the home of the Elwha River. Salmon habitats are a pride and joy in the Elwha River but in 1910 when construction began the habitats were destroyed. …show more content…
The fish that live in the Elwha River are not able to swim upstream and get the food they need and they cannot reproduce so the salmon population just dominates. The Grand Coulee dam was another but its problem was not fish it was flooding and erosion. I would say this is a very controversial topic because the people might believe pro-environment or some might be pro-economy. My point of view on this topic is I do not understand why we say we want to save the environment but we pay millions of dollars to build dam but in which harm the environment by killing of fish. However, I do understand that dam do provide energy. I believe that if we want to have dam for energy we do not need multiple small dams throughout the country instead build a couple of huge one so you are not killing all the fish you are only killing some of them but you are also getting the energy you

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    There can be so many different consequences from river diversion, downstream river discharge is reduced, the evaporation in the…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reservoirs can lead to the chance of flooding which would not only affect the land but also the life. This could greatly affect life nearby the flooding, including loss of plant and animal life, which would have a huge impact on the areas ecosystem. Reservoirs also affect the sediment levels of water and thus lead to higher levels of erosion…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    River basins need to be managed to resolve the two major issues which result from their development which include high flood risk and the conflict caused. The development of river basins such as the River Colorado, USA (an HIC) has led to unequal water distribution and many environmental problems downstream due to lack of scientific knowledge, which has caused conflict in the 7 states the river cater too. Urbanisation in the river basin in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, has increased the flood risk enormously and has meant that the local people have to learn to diversify their livelihoods in order to survive.…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elwha Dam Research Paper

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When the Elwha Dam was demolished it was the largest controlled sediment release in a dam removal project anywhere in the world. Because of the amount of sediment behind large dams like the Elwha, the demolition must be done gradually over time to ensure that there is not an overflow of sediment rushed down the river which could cause significant damage to the landscape and the organisms which inhabit it. At the time of the dam removal the Elwha was holding behind it 15,000,000 cubic yards of silt. Sediment buildup isn't the only thing that dams can change about the soil. Many geological occurrences have been blamed on dams.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    is energy, so is the electricity that comes from the dams that block that flow.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yuma's Water Issues

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages

    However, there were people who were also abusing the water usage wasting the water for no good. Also, the people who worked in agriculture got payed very little and a lot of people were getting employment. They would have to sometimes work overtime because of the dams overflowing and having to repair them. The Bureau of Reclamation built a levee on the California side on the dam that was topped by a rail-line. Beforehand, they had also gained the cooperation of the Southern Pacific railroad who agreed to deliver cement directly at the dam site. There was a lot of flooding in Yuma and also the flooding caused a lot of damages in the the town. The floods would cause to drop the nutrients on the palin before it recedes and the developers would have a lot of problems to regrow them because then it would cost more money and they would have to get other things too, to create the dams and canals. The flood would wipe out Yuma and leave it a big mess. The floods were messing up the Yuma project. The earthquake messed up Yuma. The crops used to be bad and the plants did not get a lot of water or not the same amount of water and that was making the fruits and vegetables get bad for just dry out. They had just finished the Imperial dam and that made things with water much better than it was before, that was part of the Yuma project. The Laguna dam was the first dam on the Colorado River. The idea of that was to raise the water higher so the gravity can take over with it so it would not overflow. We used 2.27 of direct effect 0.18 of indirect effect and 0.36 induced effect of water in 2014 and that was all on mostly cropping and agriculture. Yuma had a total of 20,744 people with employment in agriculture and that was affecting the economy. The Colorado River irrigated in the Yuma…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    White Salmon River

    • 2613 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Change began when nearly a century ago, when 125-foot high Condit Dam was constructed on the White Salmon River to provide cheap electricity in a region hungry for industrial development. The decision to block the White Salmon River for hydropower came at a price; the abundant salmon, steelhead, and lamprey that once returned there were lost. Also lost were the tribal fisheries and cultural activities that are inseparable from the presence of these foods. All life is intertwined.…

    • 2613 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    May I invite you to a time travel into the future? Join me in visiting the Glen Canyon in the year 2030. After some major technological breakthroughs, the United States cover all of their electricity needs with renewable energies, such as solar and wind energy. The Glen Canyon dam was torn down five years ago, and Lake Powell is drained. Just as you predicted in your essay 'The Damnation of a Canyon,' nature is gradually cleansing 'the re­pellent mess’ that emerged from the water, and is reclaiming the land. Plants, animals, and fish return. Everything is healing. Why is not everybody happy? Why are people loudly protesting to get the Glen Canyon Dam back?…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oregon 's Willamette River is the 13th largest river in the United States, not only does it span more than 11,000 square miles in total area but over 70% of all Oregonians live in the Willamette Basin. This river is as much a part of Oregon 's culture as Crater Lake or Mt. Hood, it is even a declared American Heritage river, yet we have become so disconnected from it that most people don 't even look down as they cross one of the many bridges in Portland. The Willamette River effects many aspects of our day to day life, many counties draw drinking water from the river, fish from the river were a part of our economy, 11 of the 13 dams on the river produce hydropower, the river 's tributaries create some of the richest farmland in the nation and the aesthetic value of the river is immeasurable.…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dam the Salmon

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 1916 PacifiCorp put the first dam in the Klamath in order to provide the public with hydroelectricity (Boxal). When the Copco 1 Dam was constructed on the Klamath River in 1918, it permanently blocked access to more than 350 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat in the main stem of the upper Klamath and its tributaries (Karuk). Since then many more dams have been built in order to keep up with the ever growing need for energy, they have disrupted the flow of the river and in turn, blocked off the path for many salmon to get to their natural spawning grounds. Salmon are very fickle creatures and will only spawn in the exact river that they were born in, so when the salmon can't get to their final spawning destination, they die without reproducing. This has caused less and less salmon to spawn each year.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Situated north of Grand Canyon National Park, the Glen Canyon Dam serves a multitude of purposes: it controls the distribution of sediment and water, generates $50 to $100 million worth of hydroelectricity, maintains a cold-water trout fishery, and allows for recreational activities in Lake Powell (NRC 1). However, it has also incurred damages to the surrounding environment, which holds cultural significance for the indigenous tribes. In 1988, former Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan initiated the Glen Canyon Dam Environmental Impact Studies (EIS) to examine the downstream impact of dam operations. The USBR was first to join the EIS, followed by the National Park Service and state agencies (Austin and Drye 288). However, tribal involvement…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Johnstown Flood

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages

    You may be wondering how the dam burst in the first place. Well according to McCullough there were many factors. The dam itself had many internal flaws, like the fact that it sagged a bit in the very middle of the dam where it needed to be the strongest, it would not have been noticeable to the regular eye though. The dam was part of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, which was a prestigious summer, mountain club. It had members such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. The dam created a lake for the members of the club to go boating (which was very rare, especially in the mountains), but when the dam was being rebuilt for this club many things were overlooked. For example the fact that there was no way of controlling the amount of water it held, this meant that once they raised the level of the water there was no way to go back. There were also many small leaks that were overlooked, passed off as, “springs that came from near the ends of…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gorges Dam!!!!!

    • 6453 Words
    • 26 Pages

    The conflict between the proponents and the opponents of the dam are based around the key issue of the reservoir that the dam will create. The water will rise an average of 290 meters within the gorges themselves (Chetham, 2002). The reservoir created by the dam will be 360 miles long and an anticipated 175 miles deep (Economy, 2004). The reservoir will cause the flooding of over 12,000 acres of tangerine orchards, 150 towns, 800 historical sites,…

    • 6453 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yantzge River Pollution

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A major problem with hydroelectric dams in general is that they are not the clean energy that everyone believes them to be. They produce significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The pollution…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kalabagh Dam Pakistan

    • 2563 Words
    • 11 Pages

    The Kalabagh dam controversy has been the highlight of attention since a long time now. Every now and then an issue is raised and left unsorted leaving the related provinces further confused as Pakistan’s government has not been able to decide between the two contrasting point of views since the last 27 years (1984, since its design was presented)(Iftikhar,2005) . The basic issue Kalabagh dam project is facing is the different point of views the main territories of Pakistan have. Sindh assumes that if this project is not stopped and allowed to resume the province it would be deprived of their share of water and their land would turn into a desert ultimately, flood cultivation in riverain areas would be reduced. Khyber Pakhtoon’s opposing statements were that is this dam was given a green signal as it is already known that Sindh is very prone to water logging and salinity problems high reservoir water levels could cause cultivation problems, a massive amount of people would have to be dislocated for the project etc. Punjab so far is the only province supporting the building of Kalabagh dam. According to Punjab if this project is completed it would not only benefit people by getting them rid from multiple issues but also benefit the country by reducing its dependence on foreign funds and opening a vacancy for around 30,000 people during its construction. Other advantages included fulfilling increasing demands of electricity with the number of people and providing irrigation to the river in Sindh. (Khokar, 2008)…

    • 2563 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays