Flaming Gorge Dam

This was our first view of a dam along the Colorado and for our first in depth discussion on the Colorado River. This when I began to realize how important and amazing this river really was. There are over 20 dams on the the Colorado River and even though they were built for water management not energy. They main way to get them approved was to have them produce electricity. The problem with the Colorado river is that it is the only source of water for the mid-west. The mid-west is not suppose to be habitable, it is pretty much a huge desert but with human ingenuity water has been pumped from the river to 7 states, Mexico and Native American Nations, except that the later two are sometime forgotten during drier years. The river is separated in two 3 sections, the upper basin, the lower basin and Mexico. The two basins are each suppose to receive 7.5 million acre feet of water each year and Mexico is suppose to receive 1.5 million acre feet and the Native Americans are suppose to receive between 0.2 and 0.9 million acre feet a year. The water is dammedup between the dams along the river and then allocated accordingly. The problem with these dams is the are extremely damaging to the rivers natural ecosystem.

The first problem is that dams create reservoirs behind them make sure that they have water when it is needed and to also create a strong hydraulic head to make the most amount of energy from the hydroelectric power station. This dam floods the surrounding land and builds up sediment in areas that are not natural. Since the flow of the reservoir is very slow the sediments are deposited far upstream and never make it to the dam and even less make it through the dam to replenish down stream sandbars. This is a huge concern in the Grand Canyon. We are preserving this place because of its beauty but it natural fish and plant life is being destroyed by the dams. That is why a new mandate is in affect that will have the Grand Canyon flooded every ten years which will hopefully help build up some sediments. The problem is that this won't work the sand bars are very fragile ecosystems and a flood every 10 years will not bring it back to it's natural state.

Picture Citations:

"Flaming Gorge Dam." Pierre Galin. 2008. Web.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierre_galin/2471991477/

"Colorado River in Arizona." Anthony Sarnoski. 2009.