Hello all. It has come to my attention that the term "Anasazi" is out of date, and that the term "Ancestral Puebloan" is preferred. My apologies for the oversight.
Yeah, ananizi is a Navajo word meaning ancient enemy. The Navajo and Apache came into the southwest from the north about 1100 or 1200 CE. They had to fight the Puebloan natives fo territory.
I think you environmental people really need to learn critical thinking and reasoning enough to realize what it would mean if we do everything you really want. Many of us know your true agenda. We would all have to live like the Flintstones back 1,000 years in time Or would you elitists still have your private jets and huge redwood lodges while just the peasants would be forced to go back 1,000 years ?
@@carlatamanczyk3891 "I think you environmental people really need to learn critical thinking and reasoning" You first. "We would all have to live like the Flintstones back 1,000 years in time" A great example of the slippery slope fallacy. "Or would you elitists still have your private jets and huge redwood lodges while just the peasants would be forced to go back 1,000 years ?" This channel has 956 subscribers on youtube, 156 followers on Instagram, and you think the person(s) behind the channel are millionaires? Which if that were even true, how is that relevant?
"the term "Anasazi" is out of date" Naturally. And in a year or three its successor will also be out of date. Since pretty much everyone understands "Anasazi" that's a word I will keep using. Still, its nice to know yet another name by which a population can be labeled.
@@carlatamanczyk3891 "I think you environmental people really need to learn critical thinking and reasoning" Not going to happen. This kind is emotional and those emotions are very powerful and rule until their bellies are growling with hunger. Then watch out.
I just found this channel. How did I not know it existed before? This content is the kind of stuff I live for. I'm so glad that someone out there is making videos like this. I have visited nearly 200 different National Park Service units and it is so amazing to get the full stories on these places that we have come to know and love. I actually just visited Glen Canyon NRA a couple months ago, which is what led me to this content.
Welcome to the community, we're glad to have you! 200 units is impressive - way more than me lol! I'm glad you're enjoying the stories and there are more to come. I appreciate the support!
Even with the water shortage, big companies are still building huge facilities around the Phoenix area. The Phoenix residents still flood irrigate their grass yards with 8 to 10 inches of water twice a month from water that comes from the Colorado River. The problem will continue to get worse. The population of the Phoenix metro area is 5 million with more coming every day. In the next 10 years, you won't be able to give the homes away out in the Phoenix suburbs because of the lack of water.
I find this stampede of people moving to Phoenix baffling. Have these people not heard of climate warming or do they think it’s a hoax by the left-wing media? I live no where near Phoenix but even I know that it’s rapid growth is unsustainable and that it could become virtually unliveable in the near future due to rising temperatures, to the extent that being outside for too long on a hot summer day may prove deadly. But it’s a great place to raise a family.
Flood irrigation is limited and grandfathered. Most all newer residential Phx does not have this ability. It is also arguable whether this uses less water that daily sprinkling, since such irrigation is twice a month. That being said, there is an unnatural insistence on greenery and grass lawns as vs desert (native) landscaping.
@@xaviermillar9375 Well, the temperature is rising due to urban heat sink effect from city buildings, and that is noticeable at night mostly. Daytime highs have not noticeably increased, nor will a global warming increase of say 1.5C be more than a blip for Phx dwellers. A/C keeps folks comfortable and will do so into the foreseeable future. Nothing predicted wrt global warming will change that, nor does global warming theory predict/cause the current drought. Lengthy droughts have been recorded in the Sonoran desert from the geologic record lasting hundreds of years. The shortage of water will affect the residents last. Before such rationing, farming will cease, then certain industries. Phx residential water use is over double the second largest city, Tucson. There is much that can be conserved should rationing be implemented. Prior to the CAP water from the Colorado, Phx had separate river water *and* ground water. Those resources remain. People are not going anywhere simply because it is better to live in a warm climate than a cold one-all things being equal.
@@johnluiten3686 What newer residental Phoenix? There haven't really been any residential housing developments in Phoenix in 30 years. Everything now is being built in the suburbs and those houses all have desert landscaping, not grass lawns. The point I guess I should have been more clear about is that all the houses in Phoenix that have flood irrigation should half to switch to desert-type landscaping because the water-saving would be enormous.
@@anthonynelson9136 The reply has to take into account the metro area of course. But Phx has expanded, and jumps some of the nearer mountain ranges. Those are not the old Phx, “central”, were irrigation ditches were run along roadways to residential housing. As I said, the aspect of flood irrigation vs sprinklers is problematic. The problem is water hungry landscaping, not necessarily how the water gets there. You could zone areas to be non-grass, or water savings, but I suspect the politics involved will make that the last thing they’d consider.
I don't understand how something like that compact would be fixed for a century. In my country there would be a governing structure for the entire watershed that would manage the whole area and continually update their ideas and models.
It's a big problem in the sense that without these dams many of the larger cities in the southwest could not exist. Honestly, I'm surprised desalination plants aren't popping up by the dozens on the California coast. Yeah, it's expensive... but if you honestly care about the plants and animals it's something that needs to be done. But, for the most part people will say how evil it is that we dammed this river destroying habitats, while happily using the water and power generated by these same dams and would very quickly realize how dire the situation would be without them if they were torn down.
What about the insects and lizards that live where the desalinization plants are proposed to be built? Probably easier to move the millions of invasive humans. Kalifornia karma.
@@MyBelch I agree, we should all huddle in caves because all places on earth are a native biome that would be potentially inhabited by some animals. The spot where my house is built could have held a rabbit burrow and deer den instead of my house. I'm awful. Actually, us living in caves and using fires to keep the place warm would perhaps cause them to be unhabitable by some of the wildlife that would actually live there if we weren't there. So better yet, we should kill all of humanity because us existing as a species at all effects too many other creatures. True conservation of Earth.
The problem is that desalination is so expensive as to be completely unprofitable, and there will never be desalination plants unless companies see a profit in it or the government subsidizes the fuck out of it.
The largest and most efficient desalinization plant in the world can produce a gallon of potable water for about 20 cents. If you use 5 CCF's (750 gallons) of water monthly like most U S. homes, your water bill (not sewer portion which is typically twice the price if water) would be $800 a month. Saudi oil essentially subsidizes Saudi drinking water.
I use to live in page and was a river guide on the river. Ive been at the bottom of the dam many many times. Its pretty awesome. If you ever go there you realize how remote that area is.
I have been to the top of the dam, not the bottom. The whole area, at least when I was there was very remote. Very few people would visit the area if it were not for the dam. He is worried about the ruins that were covered by the lake. AZ is covered with such ruins by the ANASAZI, I hate when people start using politically correct language. I have been all over AZ and seen them. Parks and in the back desert using 4x4s. Phoenix, at least when I lived there, was using irrigation canals that were over a thousand years old. My point is, "you can not build if a thousand years ago somebody else lived there?" The lake may have destroyed habitat for some animals. On the other hand it created habitat for others. It was a net zero for destruction verses creation at worst. We took the beaver model and made it bigger. The SW has a sine curve for water. When I lived there the precipitation was very high, late 70's, early 80's. We were flooding. Glenn Canyon was shedding water at an amazing rate, same with Hoover. These dams were made to flatten the curve. Should have seen Phoenix and the flooding they had back then. Now they are in a drought. Why did the Anasazi leave the land? Maybe because of a drought even worse than today? What I got from the video is that this person is happy with solar farms. Bulldoze millions of acres for power and destroy even more land to produce even less energy. Have a better idea. Let's build bird choppers and kill off raptors.
@@TheLittlered1961 I grew up in Page and there are always going to be tons of people driving through the area doing the grand circle (GC, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Black Canyon, Mesa Verde). Glen Canyon is managed by the Park Service too so they could easily develop more hiking infrastructure to some of the more interesting areas that are now uncovered. Also, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon have become massively popular over the years. Page can easily survive if they focus on more hiking, biking, Kayaking and 4wheeling.
@@lkajiess I do not doubt in what you have said. I went through there in about 1975/76. I was on the "dam'" elevator. The one that takes you to the generating plant. I saw the bolts that they used to stabilize the rock on the outer edges of the dam. My parents took me through there to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion. My point was, would this have happened if the dam was not there? This was a short cut for AZ and many places in NM to get to the places you have mentioned. As I stated before, would this place be so popular if it were not for the dam?
I'd say it's even worse than you said. Floyd Dominy, Reclamation's most well known administrator (hero or villain, you pick) called Glen Canyon Dam a "cash register dam." The idea was to generate hydroelectricity to create revenue to build other projects, such as the dams in the Grand Canyon. The other purpose was to impound silt to extend the life of Lake Mead. By design, Lake Powell is a sacrificial lamb. Water storage was tertiary, at best. In fact, I understand more water evaporates from Lake Powell than is actually taken from it. Now it's time to pay the piper. Seems they shut down the Navajo Generating Station a little too soon, although we are better off without all the pollutants it spewed out. The real tragedy is the loss of Glen Canyon. My science teacher from high school got to pass through it as a teen in 1957. He told us it was every bit as stunning as the Grand Canyon, and a piece of him died when they impounded Lake Powell. BTW, John Wesley Powell must also be turning in his grave knowing his beloved canyon is filled with water and silt. Removing the dam makes sense, and nature almost did it for us in 1982. At the very least, bore a new spillway to allow water to flow through. After all, outside of the the lower lake levels, the silt building up is building up fast, so it will lose its use for hydroelectricity in a couple of decades, regardless. In response to the recreational access it provides, I quote the Sierra Club's campaign against the Grand Canyon dams, "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel to be nearer the ceiling? "
@ Casey, Everything I know about the dam, and the environment makes me agree with you completely. Many of my friends work in various science and environmental groups…they called the Glen Canyon Dam an Ecological Atrocity. The desert is not just a barren wasteland, to be filled up - it is an important and valuable environment in its own right.
this reminds me of the time my 3 kids "dammed" the Colorado River with rocks in the river. It was way, way upstream where it was less than a foot deep and maybe 15 feet wide. that must have been more than 20 years ago. I'd guess the dam is long gone by now.
As a Utah resident throughout the 90's, I watched as The Stillwaters,Flaming Gorge, Lake Powell, Jordanelle and many other lakes of The C.U.P. filled in record time. That should have been a clue that they can empty in record time as well. Say a prayer for Powell. Or make a plan for the refugees from Phoenix!
I live in Bulhead city AZ just a 2 minute drive from the most beautiful river I have ever seen. I have taken it for granted. I, like so many others are very concerned about the current drought situation. Thank you for a great video. I had no clue.
Thank you for watching! These issues are tough and complicated and I don't presume to have all the answers, but with folks like you engaging in topics like this, I think we can find a better way forward.
I’m in my mid 20s and it’s crazy how I can say I’ve watched the Colorado river slowly dry up my entire life. Had dreams to go kayaking in the river one day but I’m afraid those dreams have dried up.
Great video yet again, has always struck me that Lake Powell was named after someone who said the river should not be damned for irrigation/ or to support heavy settlement.
His ideas on small scale, watershed-based development were certainly before their time. I'm sure he'd be quite disappointed in the way water is managed there today... Thanks for watching!
Deciding after the fact that "they" misestimated the effect is a problem. Do the dams get torn down, and the people who rely on that water have to move after their property values reach zero has massive social and economic consequences to the nation. Leaving the dams in place has shown economic consequences as well, positive and negative. The environmental effects of what has been done may not ever be undone by opening the flow. Taking out the dam or dams will not "bring back what was lost", it will create a new and different effect all along the river. It is not "do we want to undo the damage", it is "what will the net long term effect be" whichever way we go.
Oddly enough, there's plenty of water for the population size living in the American southwest. It's the cotton, almond, alfalfa farms that use 80-93% of the water.
We took a two hundred year old dam out by me and within days eel and herring were spawning where they hadn't in centuries. Nothing ever is the same but Nature can bounce back fast.
This is a very well done video. The quality and thought put into it is reminiscent of a time when books and media sources still encouraged their consumers to think and come to their own conclusions. I sincerely enjoyed this for its historical and informational value.
Thank you! I always try to put out well-researched and well-thought out information, even if I don't always get it right or people don't always agree with me. I also encourage plenty of discussion and alternative opinions on the issues I talk about on my channel - these issues are pretty complicated and there are lot of valid viewpoints. Ultimately, I just try and put out a good video and, like you said, just let people come to their own conclusions. Thanks again for watching!
….good video with extreme bias…you can’t drive a PRIUS without a power dam or coal plant to charge it (or a polluting Chinese lithium mine to build it)
Real Estate developers were keenly aware that Phoenix had overbuilt, even in the 1970's. But there was money to be made! Currently there are several Phoenix adjacent towns that are being cut off. They can't hire the local Water hauling company to bring them water, because the water hauler is no longer allowed to buy Phoenix water. The Phoenix water table has been dropping for 50 years, also causing adjacent cities to drill deeper to hit water too.
When I first "saw" this dam, the diversion tunnel was recently put into service with the coffer dam diverting the flow. The lower former river bed had been cleaned to bedrock and the initial cement pours were just starting.
My father worked at the Yuma Projects office during the channelizing of the lower Colorado River. The MAIN reason Glen Canyon Dam was built was to extend the life of Hoover/Bolder Dam. The silt load coming out of the Grand Canyon was going to turn Hoover into a large water fall due to silt build up. Glen Canyon is used as a settling basin. The silt comes rushing out of the canyon flows into the lake where the water drops it silt load before flowing on down stream to spin the turbines of hoover Dam. The Bureau of reclamation basically turned the lower Colorado into a giant irrigation canal. in some places the river is now unnavigable and only 1-2ft. deep.
@@weaverlance you are correct that there were other reasons used to win approval from the congress to build Glen Canyon. But, I beg to differ with you. I am not sure of what study you are quoting, But the fact is, there are MANY places below Parker Dam where the river is indeed 1ft-2ft deep. There is so little water in the river below Blythe, around Walters Camp that you can no longer drive a boat from Blythe to Yuma anymore. Mexico is also complaining that the Colorado River water allotment they are receiving is so saline as to be borderline unusable for irrigation.
@@thuringervonsausage5232 You are right. No politician does things for just one reason. Personal enrichment is another, as is the power and control that go along with it. It is almost impossible to run for congress if you ARE NOT A MILLIONAIRE to start with.
This is probably going to sound foolish, but hear me out. What if the desert states that grow food built large greenhouses? That would allow for multi-tier farming and conservation of water. There's a lettuce farm near me that has this monster sized building where they grow, process, and sell several kinds of leafy greens, so it's certainly do-able.
Learn about permaculture and a guy named Geoff Lawton. And about the huge permaculture projects in Ethiopia and other African countries. There are many examples here on YT. Permaculture is all about harvesting and storing water with strategically designed contour swales and ponds, and using the natural biological system such as useful plants and trees and bio mass to restore the land and the natural water tables, and the fertility from the soil. Even projects that are located in the desert were very successful.
Sorry for my disjointed thought process. Many don't know that two dams were proposed in the Grand Canyon, but in what was only Grand Canyon National MONUMENT at the time. One at Marble Canyon, just upstream from the Little Colorado River confluence and one that was to flood the lower portion of Grand Canyon with the upper slack water of its reservoir reaching upward to the boundary of the park portion of "the canyon." I've seen the surveyor's markings for the Marble Canyon proposal on the rocks at the canyon's bottom. It's all part of the National Park now, none of this monument nonsense.
Reclamation also assured that no one could see the reservoir from the rim of the canyon. Never mind the people who hike down, or those who go rafting. After all, the inner canyon is just ugly billion year old rock. Boring! Reclamation said by flooding the canyon, it would be more accessible. It gets worse with the Marble and Bridge Canyon dams. Like Glen Canyon Dam, their purpose was to generate electricity, which Reclamation would sell to finance more projects. Floyd Dominy himself called them "cash register dams." David Brower and the Sierra Club screwed up with Glen Canyon. At least they redeemed themselves by stirring up public outrage against these cash register dams. In one of the most brilliant and effective advertising campaigns ever, in 1975, they flooded every major newspaper with an ad that said, "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel to be nearer the ceiling?"
@@caseycooper5615 As I remember Brower made the statement during a congressional hearing after Dominy made the statement that more people would be able to see the canyon if it was flooded. The Marble Canyon dam would be in view from the rim at Desert View, so I would dispute what the BOR said about it. That unless they built the dam upstream of where I saw the markings on the canyon wall, which were upstream of the Little Colorado confluence. If those dams were built we would still have problems with little water in the reservoirs. Also if those were not in view of the south rim, the massive electrical facilities would have to be on the rim. Plus, roads would have to have been built to each site for construction access and maintenance.
@@wannabetowasabe I absolutely agree with you. I hope you took my dry sarcasm for what it was. Their only purpose was to generate power and make money. You're right about Marble Canyon - it would have been just upstream of the confluence with the Little Colorado. I saw plans for miles of roads and other infrastructure that would have paved over places sacred to the Navajo. I recall part of the plan was to have a miles long tunnel paralleling the Colorado, emptying at Bridge Canyon. The idea was to have the penstocks in this tunnel,, so as so get more drop, generating more electricity. I would love to see video of Brower using the Sistine Chapel line when he testified in Congress. Regardless, I saw copies of the ad campaign, which rivals Johnson's _Daisy_ ad for effectiveness.
It's a Land Watch issue. New Mexico has been having those issues majorly and I hope we will Not be seeing effects in the next several decades Southern California Always has these problems. Always
The biggest problem is Colorado is taking the water from the west of the Rockies and moving it to the east side, and that is causing floods and the water is only being used once. The water on the west side of the Rockies gets used up to 20 times before being released to open river.
Here in California, water is liquid gold. Much of the water has been used to grow America’s fruit and vegetables(along with the Central Valley aquifer). It’s hard to make a case for these dams not being crucial for the US as a whole. The environmental cost has been enormously high, but so have the benefits. Recreation seems like such a minor reason to build a dam. Irrelevant in a world where the SouthWest is running out of water.
We as a nation have to change our dietary habits back to being “seasonal” consumers and not count on the west, that isn’t “running out” of water, it simply expanded past its natural sustainable size.
I lived in Nevada up until a few years ago. I left because Hoover Dam is pretty much dry. I used to boat and fish there. They have moved the dock area was moved at least 15 times and I lived there 14 years.
I went there twice, one in the late 2000s early 2010s (Was a kid, difficult to fully remember), and in 2019 over the summer months when I was living out west. It’s bizarre to see the water level lower so much so the rocks surrounding it were “bleached” white. Wondering what’ll the water level will be in another 10~ or so years.
@@Stentinalization The rocks aren't "bleached white", that is alkali in the water from when the reservoir(s) were at full pool, it sticks to the walls of the canyon. The water west of the Rockies has a higher alkali content then other parts of the country. You'll see it on the stocks of trees. When it dries, it's very powdery and you can run your fingers along the stock and it comes off like baby powder. Anyways, take it easy.
@@dmannevada5981 Interesting, I referred to bleaching only as it seems to be the most general concept someone could imagine but that detail gives a more complete understanding. Thanks for informing me a bit more on that, my specialties lie within micro+molecular biology so apologies if my previous comment came off a bit ignorant.
this is well done and good information enjoyed it very much thanks for doing it. My only quibble is with this idea that we can control mother nature. Mother nature controls us we’re not that powerful. Yeah we can affect our environment as you have shown in the video but nature adapts and changes so while we may affect one thing mother nature will do something else
It is indeed time we considered the questions raised by this and other dams. We need to expand and develop technology for water conservation and re-use. And we need to support our national (and state) parks by visiting those places instead of commercialized resorts. People need to learn to treasure and respect our natural world.
Love the Colorado River. Great fishing in the lake. The biggest issue is the water use. Too many houses too many almond farm. We have a choice of energy or live like a hippy. If you like going to Vegas you best like the Hover dam.
The questions about whether or not the Glen Canyon dam was built is irrelevant because it's already there. No one is going to tear it down or abandon it. California was growing like mad and they needed water for those people to survive. People surviving and expanding into this part of the country was important to the growth of the country. No one worried about plants and animals or Anasazi ruins either. The water didn't ruin anything, it opened up the entire southwest to more people coming here. If these dams wouldn't have been built, then no one would be here and California would look very different today. Go to Chile some day and look around their desert. No one's there...
I don't know how anyone could read Edward Abbey and want to do anything other than destroy Glen Canyon dam. Especially his story in Desert Solitare of his trip through Glen Canyon right before it was flooded. Desert Solitare should be required reading. Thankfully, here in Arkansas, the Buffalo River was barely saved from a similar fate. That's a great story in itself.
Just read Desert Solitaire and it was fantastic. Just remember that he embellished the hell out of it. Like how it wasn't one summer but was over two years and that he was alone... with his wife and kid. That said every damned word of it is true even if not factually correct. The San Rafael Swell is still mostly undeveloped and you can "get out of your metal coffin" and walk there. I'm actually angry that Capitol Reef, my favorite park, was chosen over the Swell for park status, the place is truly that extraordinary. I'm more of a fan of The Emerald Mile, which talks directly about the dams and the Colorado. Also... get rid of that damn dam. Glen canyon as it was might be gone, but the wilderness will make a new masterpiece out of it.
Desert Solitare is one of my favorite all time books! Another one: ‘The Place No one Knew -Glen Canyon on the Colorado’ by Elliot Porter is a gorgeous coffee table book of Glen Canyon before it was drowned. Sadly, it is no longer in print, used copies are probably available, though.
Convenient how one of the benefits of having a damn was never mentioned. which is because of this drought the reservoir was the only reason why people had water in California last year.
When talk of dams, it's true they took alot away, but also added alot. I am 65 and from a few years old, have loved nature and have hicked uncountable miles of wild areas. One of the first things I found out was that almost all animals will be within a short way of water. Dams have created much larger shorelines and as such, alot of new habitat for wildlife. We need to find how to take care of how dams are operated to maintain the rivers between and bring back things like samon runs in the north west US. We have lost much and gained much with are dams.
I was at the Hover dam in '84' at 16 years old MAN WHAT A CHANGE I'm sure glad that I live on the other side of the Rockies in the sandhills BUT we are having water isues now also it's amazing how much things change in 40 years
Certain states that have been allowing other states to "have" their allocated water as they haven't needed it, are now facing shortages & need their allotment. The states who had benefitted from the other states not needing their allotted water are now angry about the water not going to them (was a gift from the other states)...
Interesting argument. This is not an informational documentary, but more of a biased opinion piece. I encourage people to read and understand all the facts of the CRSP before jumping to conclusions, particularly if they live in the southwest.
Hey Chris, thanks for your comment. I think it's pretty clear from my video that I do have a certain way of thinking about this issue. But I would argue I still presented some compelling facts to support that - something I always try to do in my videos. I always encourage alternative opinions on my channel as well, so feel free to present a different view of things if you'd like. Thanks for watching.
Chris I totally agree , most these people have never been out west. they think there's houses everywhere and it's overpopulated. they all care more about animals and plants then they do human life.
You can build a hydro facility without a huge dam: Take the Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant inside the Glenwood Canyon, for example. They run a pipe from an intake upstream, and bring the water downhill to a later section of the river, where they put a generator just before the discharge pipe. The natural elevation change is enough to make a significant head pressure
Hydroelectric is just to unreliable in the long term vs the cost to build it and the massive emissions required to make all the concrete/steel/copper. Between its moderate electric generation capacity and the risk that weather patterns today may not be the weather patterns in 30 years, it's an investment unlikely to be worth it. Nuclear energy requires the same amount of construction materials, but they make far more electricity and they do it 24/7/365 without altering massive landscapes and rivers. They last 50+ years and could be built to last even longer than that. At this point hydro should be a limited use option.
As long as the dam can produce power you can't get rid of it because replacing it would require some fossil fuels. That would negate the land restoration value because they can't replace all of it with solar and wind power. If it quits generating power due to low water someone needs to research at that time the chances of whether water will return.
The big problem here is not whether it was worth building the dam, but what happens when the water just doesn’t show up as expected, and boat ramps end up high and dry, and the electricity generated is reduced, and the allotted amounts need to be renegotiated. And we have built a dependency on something over which we ultimately have no control. Sounds like a recipe for trouble, or worse.
@@blackhawk7r221 I moved to the desert from Western Oregon and I'll stay. Its the other morons who aren't adapting to the realities of desert life that are going to flee the desert when it comes back for what its due. Then they'll be your problem. Best of luck.
This is the 1st time since it was built that this has happened. In 1984 (I think?) Flood waters were not properly estimated & the dam was inches from being "Crested" if water poured over it, it would have basically Self destructed. Dam Workers were Actually using Plywood on the top of the dam to stop it from cresting.
In my opinion, no solution is simple when it comes to the Colorado River. But you're right in the sense that the Colorado River Compact needs to be renegotiated, or at the very least updated, given current river flows and water usage.
I just found your channel. I watched all 3 of your videos on dams. It answered a lot of question I've had for years. Thank you! Man always seems to make things worst with their "great" ideas, only to realize decades later that perhaps they've created new or a bigger problem. Now what do we do?
Thanks for being here! Dams are certainly a contentious issue, especially the 3 I highlighted in my videos. There's no easy answers considering the scale of this system and the people that rely on them, but my hope is that we can at least learn from our mistakes and identify opportunities like the Elwha for sensible removal and restoration.
I knew a guy once who heard a Professor speak on how the damn was a big mistake and that it was just built for greedy, Capitalist reasons. They didn't know what they were doing back then. Many innocent plants have suffered as a result.
I've a few degrees myself. Done some university work, too. Hard science or no do your own investigating. Increasingly, social and political maturity are a distant second oftentimes these days.
You want to see some cruelty to nature? Check out what communists/socialists have done. Not that the American Indians were behind hand -stampeding a thousand buffalo over a cliff so they could use one or two. Destruction of habitat and wildlife and other Indians was as natural to Indians as slavery was to the Comancheria. I've watched Andean campesinos torch whole mountainsides over one bushmaster.
The original allocation of 1922 was based on politics, not science. The upcoming renegotiation will be similarly flawed. Basically it will work until it doesn’t, there is no contingency plan.
@@Thomas63r2 Do you believe everything the Government tells you? Do you believe that Fauci always told the truth? Do you believe that Pfizer told the truth? Do you believe that widespread Government mandates are legal and Constitutional?
@@RobertPetersen1z2y Okay, so you are a reductionist. You might as well take it all the way, and argue that nothing is real. Please I would ask you to stop making everything into a vast conspiracy theory. In the history of pandemics such reactions always emerge, then fade with the passage of time. Meanwhile, respectfully back on topic: my point was that the allocation of water in the 1922 agreement was not based on its actual availability, which is forcing the situation now at hand. My second point was the same error will likely be repeated in the renegotiations. Scarce fresh water is the true gold of the earth. It appears to me that we have treated the relatively wetter last 120 years or so as normal - against a longer and drier historical record. Humans may enjoy living in warm dry areas, but nature may have other plans for its sustainability.
@@Thomas63r2 You asked me a question on whether I was a conspiracy theorist. I responded with questions back to you to better ascertain if you were interested in reconsidering your labeling of me. But, alas, by your follow up response it's clear that you are a Labelist. You labeled me twice in two comments and both labels you tried to impose on me are wrong. But, that won't stop people like you from doing this over and over. You're perfectly happy to simply throw a label on someone and engage in ad hominem attacks rather than actually offer an opinion of your own creation in furtherance of discussion. You behave no better than the typical school yard bully.
Dams are not the answer. Oregon found out the hard way after the salmon began disappearing, cut off from their place of birth. Lack of salmon caused entire food systems to collapse. Fish enrich the water, provide food to carnivores, including humans. Oregon is now dismantling some dams, but irreparable damage has been done to the ecosystems. This is especially evident with the climate of the Pacific Northwest becoming drastically warmer and dryer.
One of the things I never thought about with the salmon runs is the impact of the oceanic nutrients they bring into these freshwater ecosystems. Absolutely vital. And of course, dams sever that link completely. This isn't Oregon, but I have a video about the Elwha dam removals in Washington that touches on these sorts of impacts if you're interested: th-cam.com/video/Q3ooEH3cGHs/w-d-xo.html
Hi can you please make a video about the California central valley? The Tulare lake was massive in the 1850s and they redirected the water to Los Angeles. Now the central valley is drying up to include its ground water. Tulare lake is gone and the valley is in perpetual drought. We are told to conserve water while it is being sent to LA.
It would have been some sight to see, absolutely. They can't replace the real thing, but The Glen Canyon Institute has a gallery of pre-dam photos if you're interested: www.glencanyon.org/pre-powell-photos/
The two extremes are both wrong. It is not something to be "bent to our will," or to be "left alone." Its to be worked with in harmony as a custodianship, not destroyed or abandoned.
Glen Canyon dam hasn't produced at its nameplate capacity for some time. The argument for its existence is further eroded by the fact that as a powerplant, it's of fairly low output even at full power. A single nuclear reactor at the Palo Verde Nuclear plant near Phoenix produces that same amount of electricity as Glen Canyon Dam, and there are three such reactors. Building and installing another one would be all the additional electricity needed to replace the dam's declining output. Or, stick a few nice shiny new modular reactors where the Navajo Generating Station is. The coal plant is shutdown at this point but all the electrical connections are still there. In terms of water use, the flows of the Colorado will still be there. Nearby Paige AZ and the native tribes will have access. Perhaps a side canyon could be flooded as a small local reservoir that isn't as consequential as Glen Canyon to ensure steady water supplies. The sensible move here is to remove the Glen Canyon dam and restore the river and store the water in Lake Mead downstream. Not only would you regain the natural beauty of Glen Canyon's striking sandstone walls but you'd stop allowing so much water to seep through those walls. The Navajo Sandstone of Glen Canyon is much more porous than the basaltic rock that makes up Black Canyon where Hoover Dam was built. Bank seepage is considerably worse in Lake Powell. When Lake Powell was closer to full, it lost enough water each year from evaporation and bank seepage, to completely cover Nevada's allocation of 300k Ac/ft per year. One lake loses less water than two. Lake Mead is also deeper than Powell but has slightly less surface area, meaning less evaporation. The reasons for keeping Glen Canyon Dam are gone. It was a bad idea when it was built and it needs to go.
I have three generations of my family in the coal power plant business including myself they just closed the one I retired from pitiful it was a cyclonic steam generator from Germany from war reparations and it had been rebuilt and numerous times and it still going but they let the stupid Sierra club stop it and close it down
My opinion is that we should be using desalinization along the coast. So many cities use that water from the river people forget that a portion is also required to go to Mexico as well. I am almost 40 and have gone to Powell for recreation for 3 decades. To see the water levels where they are right now is sad. Water management is really bad in so many places specially in California. And they keep building more and more without a solution for the future problems that are going to arise.
Desalinization is really interesting to me. I don't know enough about it to offer an opinion here, but thanks for offering an additional perspective and giving me something to research!
@@jimbob4456 you are the one that’s incorrect I’ve tried posting a couple different links. Slippery slope for sure. Search “grass lawns are an ecological catastrophe”
These dams have a silt build up that limits their life to about 50 years. Most of them are reaching or exceeding that time frame. So how do you handle that problem?
I would go in there with my engineering firm where I used to install fire extinguishing equipment in coal fire power plants and take some of that water put it on high pressure and blow that silt away constantly it would have to be sedimented ,somewhere
Seams like modern dams need a mechanism to suck up silt and to add it into the discharge beyond the power station so that downstream still gets the sediment that they are lacking now. Don't have a solution for the cold water though unless there was a series of pipes that allowed water to be pulled from the upper, warmer layers but that would be a nightmare to manage with fluctuating levels.
I live in Page, AZ home of the lake Powell and I’m not gonna lie it’s sad to see our lake become less and less than it used to be back in the 90s or the 80s
This presentation focuses on the negative side of the effort by the BOR to provide irrigation water and electricity to an area that would otherwise have neither. The presence of people, cities, recreation, and industry in the west has a favorable side too, and with proper management can exist with these dams.
@@patriciajackson6711 you act as you speak for God, but the fact is you don't. The Word of God says exactly the opposite of what your saying God said. God in the Bible told mankind to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue the earth. The fact is that cannot be done without utilyzing the earth's natural resources. People actually need items such as wood, minerals, oil, gas, water, & electricity. And the earth just like food, crops and animals were all created for mankind's use. And are not meant to be abstained from. Climate change is a lie!
When are people going to realize that although it is expensive and produces a lot of waste(that can be stored until we find a good use for it), desalination is the answer to the water problem?
Not sure how you figure. I was watching something about desalinization in a middle eastern country and did the math, if they wanted to avoid discharging saturated brine back into the ocean, they'd need to have devoted like 1/10 of the landmass of the country or something insane like that, to ponds to dry out the brines produced to provide all the water they needed.
@@Nevir202 That was probably done using reverse osmosis, if you boil the water, there is much less waste. Although boiling does take a lot more energy. Another solution would be discharging the brine up in the north pole where the ice melting is causing an excess of fresh water which disrupts water currents so we could fill the fresh water with the brine to keep the currents going. From the people I've talked to who work at desalination plants. the reason its dumped into the ocean is because that is cheaper than doing something with it.
@@MegaLokopo Brine sinks, so not only would building such pipelines be among the largest engineering feats in human history, due to the length and size requirements. you'd still be obliterating the ecosystem there. If you were in a position to build such pipes, why wouldn't you instead propose capturing ice melt and pumping it the other direction? It would be fresh and relatively clean to start with. And yes, it's cheaper to dump brine than to do something with it, again, to provide the water for a city, you would require evaporation ponds taking up dozens, if not hundreds of square miles to reduce it to salts. That's gonna be expensive. Or else, you need inconceivably large plants gulping down stupid amounts of energy to dry it by force.
@@Nevir202 My point is that the solutions are out there, sadly it is currently cheaper to avoid solving the problem because not enough people are dying yet. The ecosystem is already being destroyed from the fresh water. But yea capturing ice melt would be a good alternative. Evaporation ponds would be part of the solution but there are many ways to clean water, and we already have lots of land that isn't being used for anything and any salt water lakes could easily be used for evaporation even though its less efficient that way every bit helps. Large plants gulping down stupid amounts of energy would be necessary if we weren't already using stupid amounts of energy to cool down everything that generates heat. If you use excess heat that buildings like powerplants and servers use, you could significantly reduce the amount of energy you need. Also if we used, nuclear power generating enough energy would be far easier.
@@MegaLokopo Wait, so you're upset that people are gathering natural fresh water in artificial lakes, but have no issue with converting thousands of square miles into uninhabitable badlands by flooding them with brine? What kind of sense does that make?
I'm an old-fashioned libertarian, so for me, all the eminent-domain powers that were used to install the dams in the first place, however beneficial one thinks they are, wouldn't exist. All it would take was one guy who didn't want to sell his land where the proposed reservoir was going to be to scotch the whole deal. I'm more of a small-scale, permaculture kind of guy. Those deserts out West can be pioneered in ways that are friendly to man and environment. There's a false dichotomy between "use the land" and "preserve the land." We're smart enough to improve on Nature as creatures OF Nature. We're not separate from Nature. That's a big myth. We can choose what our place in the ecosystem is by making conscious decisions. Small-scale sequestration of rainwater can green up an awful lot of desert.
All plants and animals try their best to alter their surroundings to better their own survival chances, like a tree growing roots through hard stone to make more soil or a mole digging a hole to live in. Or the entire concept of a beaver. We can alter our environment to our own needs without destroying it for everything else, if we play it smart.
@@stone7281 The difference between humans and animals is that animals don't care what they destroy. Moles would happily eat every bug in the soil if they could. We're the only species who can consciously improve on nature, going back to Druids of an earlier age gently moving a strangler vine from a living tree to a nearby rock, or building an earth-sheltered home that blends with the environment.
A very informative explanation of the cost of these dams for development. Of course you never actually hear about the fact that they knew the water levels back then were above average. They just try to blame everything on the climate change. Not the fact of over development, and skewed numbers back when the dams were originally built.
Actually desert wildlife had been doing fine for thousands of years. The dam changed the river so native fish could no longer survive in the now cold clearer water. Now the fish are all planted trout.
Ironically, John Wesley Powell, after whom lake Powell was named, warned in 1883 that the central aquifer of the western US was not sufficient to support the settlement of large populations or extensive agriculture. His advice was ignored because the vested interests of the day saw big profits in settling these areas.
The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. They are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara Tradition, which developed from the Picosa culture.
Personally I think that glen canyon damn needs to bite the dust. Once Powell reaches dead pool, it means that the flow of the Colorado beyond glen canyon damn will stop, which in itself will cause major problems for the Grand Canyon, lake mead, etc.
All of this seems correct. And I cannot believe they have not corrected water usage by pricing it correctly. NO-ONE is gonna flood water their lawn if it costs a thousand dollars to do that. Seriously, ten fold the price, watch conservationists pop up outta nowhere.
Water is unmetered in Scotland. Pay a monthly fee and use as much as you like and it's all drinkable and mostly v nice to drink. We use less than almost anywhere in the USA. I can't work out what you do with it but growing lawns in desert would certainly explain a lot. Improve your decorative horticulture. You have an excellent diversity of plants and must be able to stop copying north European styles. I suppose a lawn is a status thing ?
@@reubenj.cogburn8546 it is sad to see you suffer from lack of thinking as well! Only a moron would not know that wasteful irrigation techniques in agriculture account for most of the water usage in the world. Pricing water at 600% more than what it costs now would definitely cause a B.O. problem for sure. It would make alot of poor people unable to utilize a community garden to shave off the cost of food. All the big cities in the southwest are Democrat run and the people who have a lawn to water are mostly white people so we know who to blame with the green grass issues eh? I remember in the 80s visiting family in L.A. and taking a shower like we do here in Colorado and after being told that because of that they could not do laundry for a couple days. They lived in a condominium and the grass outside was as green as could be!!!! Adult thinking = laughing my ass off , the adults in the room are the driver of the worlds ills.
Hi, I just subscribed to your channel. I find it not only entertaining, but educational, informative, and thought-provoking. I also like your cinema graphic skills
Thanks and welcome to the community! I will be honest and say a lot of the footage in my videos isn't my own, but comes from stock footage. I incorporate my own when I'm able to travel, but I couldn't tell these stories as frequently as I do without stock footage. Glad you're enjoying it!
When I was young...we went to lake Powell (1980 ish) several times for vacation...and they told us that.the concrete alone would take 600 years to fully cure in the dam...don't know if thats true, but that's what the Ranger tour guide said.
Well, this was an interesting video!! I have never seen either one of these dams and lakes, and both sides have some valid points in their stories, I think that since the dams are here and in place already, and functional, they should just leave them there in place! Because one thing is Definitely certain- IF any of the dams is removed for any reason, we will NEVER be able to put it back up!! Because once something like that is gone, it's really gone forever!! And we Don't know what the Future holds... "Global warming" is a cyclical event, and it fluctuates so much that we really Don't know what events will happen, so it would not be very wise to get rid of the dams yet. We nay have a bad flood cycle in 4-5 years, and really need the dams! Just my opinion..........
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate your perspective. These dams highlight some tricky issues, that's for sure. Part of the reason I made this video was to provide context for the time period Glen Canyon was built, and hopefully bring some perspective to the issues that surrounded it, both then and now.
Glen Canyon Dam should have never been built, and is not needed. The Dam should be torn out, and the materials used elsewhere. The same is true of the Hetch Hetchy Dam, which drowned a Valley that John Muir said was the equal of Yosemite Valley. Yosemite has so many visitors, that reservations are necessary to camp in the Valley, and perhaps, to visit there. A restored Hetch Hetchy Valley might be a good "overflow" alternative. The Dams should be torn out, the Canyons and Valley restored as much as possible, allowed to heal, and replacement reservoirs be built elsewhere. The location of Glen Canyon Dam, and Lake Powell; was a stupid idea, and was pushed by Senator Barry Goldwater, who never was a friend of the Environment, or The American People. Even the man who headed the project, said it was a bad idea. I could point out, that because of the climate in Arizona and Nevada, a major drawback to Lakes Mead and Powell is the rate of evaporation. Had the reservoirs been built, upstream; the rate of evaporation might be lessened, more capacity could be built, and more water provided to the area. I am a former resident of Columbus, and saw what was happening, in Central Ohio, along with reading the History of the Area. One problem is that the area has an abundance of natural resources; Limestone, Sandstone, and Coal; and the area is pockmarked with strip mines, and quarries. There was an idea, to triple the capacity of O'Shaughnessy Reservoir, north of Columbus, on the Scioto River, which I liked, and the Dam could have been repaired, and upgraded, at the same time, but the plan went nowhere. Columbus chose to build an upground reservoir, instead, using up valuable farmland in the process. The same is true, of the upground reservoir built by the Delaware County Water District (DELCO). There is, as I said, numerous quarries in the area, many abandoned, where Columbus and Delaware Linestones, were quarried, for a number of reasons. These could be "cleaned out" at the end of their useful lives, claimed by various state agencies, and used for water storage, and in combination with upstream dams, used for flood control on the upper Scioto River. The same is true, in the Muskingum, and Great Miami River Watersheds. These projects should be evaluated, and implemented. We can no longer afford to be a "Throwaway Society".
@@rodrudinger9902 So, you said that we can't continue as a "throw away society" and I completely agree with you on that. But you want to tear down & throw away 2 perfectly functional dams??? For what? Some crazy environmentalist wacko nonsense?? Because You don't think they should have been built in the first place??? Regardless of your silly reasons, the dams are there, and functional, so we need to just leave them alone, or make them better instead of destroying them for some foolish reason!!!
@@smytb I didn't say anything about Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead; you misinterpreted my comment, although I should have been more clear: Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy Dams, should be dismantled, and the materials used elsewhere. While Lake Mead suffers from evaporation from its position in the desert; there is too much infrastructure associated with it, and the area is too dependent on it. My main point was that Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy Dams were poorly planned, and water supply dams could be located elsewhere, where the evaporation rate would be lower. Arizona could still draw water from the Colorado, and might have a more reliable supply; from construction of a small dam, and pool, at Lee's Ferry, or close to it. There are plenty of locations, on the tributary streams and rivers, that could be used, with minimal impact on archaeological sites, and natural areas needing preservation. There is also the possibility of upground reservoirs, and canyons that have little other value, being used as reservoirs. We could be conducting a survey, right now.
@@rodrudinger9902 That's ok, you have some interesting ideas, but in general, I would still think that we should not tear down ANY dams that are already in place!! Because once they are gone, they will Never be able to put them back! Regardless of how efficient or inefficient they are, we shouldn't be tearing down one thing until AFTER a replacement is up and running! Whatever that is that they decide to do, it should be done first, before they decide to take down the Dam! You know how F**ked up the government is about doing stuff to repair anything!
I visited Lake Powell in 1981, when the water level was high and the attitude still generally positive for the area. It was already clear that the sediments captured behind the dam would eventually make it useless for water storage even without the drought.
Excellent vid quality and info. You deserve more subs! You got mine via this one. I looooove lake Powell but we have some real conversations to have about the future of water in the SW. It’s gonna get ugly fast without serious considerations toward reality. Great job! I’m happy to have found this today. Now, if I could just get back to work over here. 😂
Thanks, and welcome to the community! I couldn't agree more about water in the Southwest. Serious questions to ask and no easy answers, but conversations like these certainly help. Thanks for contributing!
C- & D+ college grads, never recruited by private industry while in college, these failures are in our military, Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation
The dam should never have been built. It was not needed. Lake Mead wouldn’t be so low if Lake Powell didn’t have to be filled up. No liberal or conservative. Just facts.
If there was a way to harness the power of some of these rivers without changing the flow of them it would be good. Imagine what having a few spaced out on the Mississippi would produce in power, except there's no way to divert it to build the dam safely. You kind of need to just plop one in by helicopter!😂 😂😂 I'm not big on messing with nature. I understand why people would want to make a lake in the desert but I don't think anyone can see far enough ahead to know exactly what kind of impact any changes we might make will have in the future. Just like the amount of water measurements those men took. They thought they were being accurate I'm sure and they probably thought they planned ahead for any future development. They could never have imagined today's LA area alone plus everything else! You don't think about how water flows underground and how moving it may effect things 1000's of miles away. It's just too big a scale. They did their best with the information the had to make life better for the people who lived there. That's all I could expect of them. As we go forward we learn new things and do better. That's all I expect from us.
I was just there last week. There's a boom behind the dam, which I suspect is actually a net to prevent more invasive species sneaking through like bass did earlier this year. It's very sobering to see it, to stand there and know the reservoir shore shrinks daily.
This study (www.treeflow.info/content/colorado-r-lees-ferry-az) reconstructs river flows back to roughly 1500 and determined the long term average flow of the Colorado River is slightly less than 15 MAF, but was flowing just under 20 MAF at the time of the compact. When Mexico was added to the agreement, the total allocation for the Colorado River was 16.5 MAF, which is why it's said that the River is "overallocated."
Here’s a crazy and expensive idea that might just help fix all these issues… what if we build a system to pump water up to the lake beds of Lahontan in Nevada and Bonneville in Utah? These areas were natural lake systems when there was higher rainfall and cooler temperatures. Having these lakes filled with solar-powered desalinated sea water would provide plenty of water for all the western untitled states and Mexico. The big dams could be removed to allow the river’s natural systems to come back into place, and the hydro could be replaced with wind farms. There would be plenty of water to give rain and snowfall a huge boost and the river systems would recover their natural ecosystems.
That’s true. That’d be an issue with the idea. It’s really an idea that’d been better to pitch to someone 150 years ago before these towns and cities got so populated. Then we could be reaping the benefits of the lake being here improving our weather
Soooo. Do we just do without the water and power? I think for those who want to protect the environment at all costs should practice as they preach. Disconnect all utilities move out of their house get rid of their cars and just go live in and be one with nature with nothing modern no plastics no synthetics just all natural items and lead by example. Oh and stop using electricity to make these videos. Then it might catch on and more people would see how well you’re doing and then everyone could live as they did before the 20th century. There’s a balance here like with everything And that needs to be found. I personally like the comforts of today.
Let em eat cake, but no water for you, $5 for a cup of water, you'll gladly pay, soon...here in MN we don't have that issue, and no, pipeline for you, since liberals don't like them.
Without the Glen Canyon Dam in place. Lake Mead would have run out of water, dead pool 10 years ago. What has gotten us to this past winter's one season of bountiful snow is the double storage. The two reservoirs have held enough water to nearly allow us to scrape through. Southern California in particular would have been in serious trouble.
The dams ( all) first purpose was flood control, the power generation and water use were only important to get support to spend all that money to build them. If the dams weren't built, there'd be little water to argue about, cities wouldn't be and agriculture would be scant.
Like the dam or not it's there you've changed that area with it you can't go back there are millions and millions of people that are affected by that damn and the water it stores. You've got four times the people relying on that water and power that you had back in 1960 when it was put in. That's just the people that live and drink the water from there and the power but the agriculture that's grown and then shipped all across the country that's the other effect you're exporting that water. You're about to come into the biggest food shortage the world has ever known and these people that keep clamoring about climate change I don't know how to address them it's beyond my imagination that they're that ignorant. Yosemite national Park is a beautiful place today what created Yosemite national Park glaciers and then there's glacier national Park oh the glaciers are disappearing well they did disappear in Yosemite and it all happened way before the gasoline or diesel engine was engineered. What created the coal mines in Wyoming because it used to be a swamp the Earth changes and there's nothing you can do about it it's not climate change it's Earth change. I will say we're not doing anything to help it but what we're doing is nothing to do with the glaciers that disappeared in Yosemite glacier national Park the coal mines in Wyoming.
Well said.... in addition I challenge all these national park environmentalists to get rid of everything they benefit from that is produced by everything they want eliminated or dismantled... I won't hold my breath but I will still challenge them and wait.
Arizona’s farmers were a prime force in the development of this dam. Before the dam, agricultural areas were flooded. Most of the Colorado River water goes into watering crops needed by California and Arizona residents (than 5% is used by Las Vegas as Vegas has very strict hydro laws). The real culprit is the need to meet the needs of a growing population in the west. Would you tell people they can’t settle there. The Hetch Hetchy provides water for San Francisco. This video is ill informed. Blaming water projects is like blaming farmers for providing food to a growing population. Let’s discuss the root causes.
If there is one thing that truly needs to be reclaimed it's humanities place IN nature, & not trying to dominate & control it. If you look around, we're not really great at the last part.
In La Paz MX, Baja Cabos where the Black Pearl was written the geological tours out to islands note that with in a decade of the mega dams the pearls were gone. Only ruins housing birds remain. Can you imagine the impact thru the whole Gulf!?!
Farmer's are to blame with the loss of nature. We do not need 100 acers to feed the community? They did the same if not worse in California San Joaquin River and Kings River.
Hello all. It has come to my attention that the term "Anasazi" is out of date, and that the term "Ancestral Puebloan" is preferred. My apologies for the oversight.
Yeah, ananizi is a Navajo word meaning ancient enemy. The Navajo and Apache came into the southwest from the north about 1100 or 1200 CE. They had to fight the Puebloan natives fo territory.
I think you environmental people really need to learn critical thinking and reasoning enough to realize what it would mean if we do everything you really want. Many of us know your true agenda.
We would all have to live like the Flintstones back 1,000 years in time
Or would you elitists still have your private jets and huge redwood lodges while just the peasants would be forced to go back 1,000 years ?
@@carlatamanczyk3891 "I think you environmental people really need to learn critical thinking and reasoning"
You first.
"We would all have to live like the Flintstones back 1,000 years in time"
A great example of the slippery slope fallacy.
"Or would you elitists still have your private jets and huge redwood lodges while just the peasants would be forced to go back 1,000 years ?"
This channel has 956 subscribers on youtube, 156 followers on Instagram, and you think the person(s) behind the channel are millionaires? Which if that were even true, how is that relevant?
"the term "Anasazi" is out of date"
Naturally. And in a year or three its successor will also be out of date. Since pretty much everyone understands "Anasazi" that's a word I will keep using. Still, its nice to know yet another name by which a population can be labeled.
@@carlatamanczyk3891 "I think you environmental people really need to learn critical thinking and reasoning"
Not going to happen. This kind is emotional and those emotions are very powerful and rule until their bellies are growling with hunger. Then watch out.
Dinosaur National Monument was saved not just by environmental groups, but also by hunters and fisherman coming together to preserve it.
I just found this channel. How did I not know it existed before? This content is the kind of stuff I live for. I'm so glad that someone out there is making videos like this. I have visited nearly 200 different National Park Service units and it is so amazing to get the full stories on these places that we have come to know and love. I actually just visited Glen Canyon NRA a couple months ago, which is what led me to this content.
Welcome to the community, we're glad to have you! 200 units is impressive - way more than me lol! I'm glad you're enjoying the stories and there are more to come. I appreciate the support!
I’m amazed that one of your friends hadn’t recommended it to you Jerry?
read the Monkey Wrench Gang
Even with the water shortage, big companies are still building huge facilities around the Phoenix area. The Phoenix residents still flood irrigate their grass yards with 8 to 10 inches of water twice a month from water that comes from the Colorado River. The problem will continue to get worse. The population of the Phoenix metro area is 5 million with more coming every day. In the next 10 years, you won't be able to give the homes away out in the Phoenix suburbs because of the lack of water.
I find this stampede of people moving to Phoenix baffling. Have these people not heard of climate warming or do they think it’s a hoax by the left-wing media? I live no where near Phoenix but even I know that it’s rapid growth is unsustainable and that it could become virtually unliveable in the near future due to rising temperatures, to the extent that being outside for too long on a hot summer day may prove deadly. But it’s a great place to raise a family.
Flood irrigation is limited and grandfathered. Most all newer residential Phx does not have this ability. It is also arguable whether this uses less water that daily sprinkling, since such irrigation is twice a month. That being said, there is an unnatural insistence on greenery and grass lawns as vs desert (native) landscaping.
@@xaviermillar9375 Well, the temperature is rising due to urban heat sink effect from city buildings, and that is noticeable at night mostly. Daytime highs have not noticeably increased, nor will a global warming increase of say 1.5C be more than a blip for Phx dwellers. A/C keeps folks comfortable and will do so into the foreseeable future. Nothing predicted wrt global warming will change that, nor does global warming theory predict/cause the current drought. Lengthy droughts have been recorded in the Sonoran desert from the geologic record lasting hundreds of years. The shortage of water will affect the residents last. Before such rationing, farming will cease, then certain industries. Phx residential water use is over double the second largest city, Tucson. There is much that can be conserved should rationing be implemented. Prior to the CAP water from the Colorado, Phx had separate river water *and* ground water. Those resources remain. People are not going anywhere simply because it is better to live in a warm climate than a cold one-all things being equal.
@@johnluiten3686 What newer residental Phoenix? There haven't really been any residential housing developments in Phoenix in 30 years. Everything now is being built in the suburbs and those houses all have desert landscaping, not grass lawns. The point I guess I should have been more clear about is that all the houses in Phoenix that have flood irrigation should half to switch to desert-type landscaping because the water-saving would be enormous.
@@anthonynelson9136 The reply has to take into account the metro area of course. But Phx has expanded, and jumps some of the nearer mountain ranges. Those are not the old Phx, “central”, were irrigation ditches were run along roadways to residential housing. As I said, the aspect of flood irrigation vs sprinklers is problematic. The problem is water hungry landscaping, not necessarily how the water gets there. You could zone areas to be non-grass, or water savings, but I suspect the politics involved will make that the last thing they’d consider.
Mother nature will reclaim the Colorado River over time. The dam is temporary.
I don't understand how something like that compact would be fixed for a century.
In my country there would be a governing structure for the entire watershed that would manage the whole area and continually update their ideas and models.
It's a big problem in the sense that without these dams many of the larger cities in the southwest could not exist. Honestly, I'm surprised desalination plants aren't popping up by the dozens on the California coast. Yeah, it's expensive... but if you honestly care about the plants and animals it's something that needs to be done.
But, for the most part people will say how evil it is that we dammed this river destroying habitats, while happily using the water and power generated by these same dams and would very quickly realize how dire the situation would be without them if they were torn down.
What about the insects and lizards that live where the desalinization plants are proposed to be built? Probably easier to move the millions of invasive humans. Kalifornia karma.
@@MyBelch I agree, we should all huddle in caves because all places on earth are a native biome that would be potentially inhabited by some animals. The spot where my house is built could have held a rabbit burrow and deer den instead of my house. I'm awful.
Actually, us living in caves and using fires to keep the place warm would perhaps cause them to be unhabitable by some of the wildlife that would actually live there if we weren't there. So better yet, we should kill all of humanity because us existing as a species at all effects too many other creatures. True conservation of Earth.
The problem is that desalination is so expensive as to be completely unprofitable, and there will never be desalination plants unless companies see a profit in it or the government subsidizes the fuck out of it.
The largest and most efficient desalinization plant in the world can produce a gallon of potable water for about 20 cents. If you use 5 CCF's (750 gallons) of water monthly like most U S. homes, your water bill (not sewer portion which is typically twice the price if water) would be $800 a month. Saudi oil essentially subsidizes Saudi drinking water.
@@Xander-dx6mw you don't need potable water to shower or flush toilets.
I use to live in page and was a river guide on the river. Ive been at the bottom of the dam many many times. Its pretty awesome. If you ever go there you realize how remote that area is.
I used to fish Lee’s Ferry, awesome place.
I have been to the top of the dam, not the bottom. The whole area, at least when I was there was very remote. Very few people would visit the area if it were not for the dam. He is worried about the ruins that were covered by the lake. AZ is covered with such ruins by the ANASAZI, I hate when people start using politically correct language. I have been all over AZ and seen them. Parks and in the back desert using 4x4s. Phoenix, at least when I lived there, was using irrigation canals that were over a thousand years old. My point is, "you can not build if a thousand years ago somebody else lived there?"
The lake may have destroyed habitat for some animals. On the other hand it created habitat for others. It was a net zero for destruction verses creation at worst. We took the beaver model and made it bigger.
The SW has a sine curve for water. When I lived there the precipitation was very high, late 70's, early 80's. We were flooding. Glenn Canyon was shedding water at an amazing rate, same with Hoover. These dams were made to flatten the curve. Should have seen Phoenix and the flooding they had back then. Now they are in a drought. Why did the Anasazi leave the land? Maybe because of a drought even worse than today?
What I got from the video is that this person is happy with solar farms. Bulldoze millions of acres for power and destroy even more land to produce even less energy. Have a better idea. Let's build bird choppers and kill off raptors.
@@TheLittlered1961 nailed it! 👍🏼
@@TheLittlered1961 I grew up in Page and there are always going to be tons of people driving through the area doing the grand circle (GC, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Black Canyon, Mesa Verde). Glen Canyon is managed by the Park Service too so they could easily develop more hiking infrastructure to some of the more interesting areas that are now uncovered. Also, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon have become massively popular over the years.
Page can easily survive if they focus on more hiking, biking, Kayaking and 4wheeling.
@@lkajiess I do not doubt in what you have said. I went through there in about 1975/76. I was on the "dam'" elevator. The one that takes you to the generating plant. I saw the bolts that they used to stabilize the rock on the outer edges of the dam. My parents took me through there to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion. My point was, would this have happened if the dam was not there? This was a short cut for AZ and many places in NM to get to the places you have mentioned.
As I stated before, would this place be so popular if it were not for the dam?
I'd say it's even worse than you said. Floyd Dominy, Reclamation's most well known administrator (hero or villain, you pick) called Glen Canyon Dam a "cash register dam." The idea was to generate hydroelectricity to create revenue to build other projects, such as the dams in the Grand Canyon. The other purpose was to impound silt to extend the life of Lake Mead. By design, Lake Powell is a sacrificial lamb.
Water storage was tertiary, at best. In fact, I understand more water evaporates from Lake Powell than is actually taken from it. Now it's time to pay the piper. Seems they shut down the Navajo Generating Station a little too soon, although we are better off without all the pollutants it spewed out.
The real tragedy is the loss of Glen Canyon. My science teacher from high school got to pass through it as a teen in 1957. He told us it was every bit as stunning as the Grand Canyon, and a piece of him died when they impounded Lake Powell. BTW, John Wesley Powell must also be turning in his grave knowing his beloved canyon is filled with water and silt.
Removing the dam makes sense, and nature almost did it for us in 1982. At the very least, bore a new spillway to allow water to flow through. After all, outside of the the lower lake levels, the silt building up is building up fast, so it will lose its use for hydroelectricity in a couple of decades, regardless.
In response to the recreational access it provides, I quote the Sierra Club's campaign against the Grand Canyon dams, "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel to be nearer the ceiling? "
@ Casey, Everything I know about the dam, and the environment makes me agree with you completely. Many of my friends work in various science and environmental groups…they called the Glen Canyon Dam an Ecological Atrocity. The desert is not just a barren wasteland, to be filled up - it is an important and valuable environment in its own right.
Man you can't even compare Glen canyon to the Grand canyon no comparison not even close Grand Canyon is massive compared to the Glen
this reminds me of the time my 3 kids "dammed" the Colorado River with rocks in the river. It was way, way upstream where it was less than a foot deep and maybe 15 feet wide. that must have been more than 20 years ago. I'd guess the dam is long gone by now.
@@zacsdiyguns Ouch.
In a couple years you'll be lucky to find a spot anywhere that's still 15 feet wide.🥺
Maybe your kids accidentally "damned" the river instead, cursing us with this permanent drought.
As a Utah resident throughout the 90's, I watched as The Stillwaters,Flaming Gorge, Lake Powell, Jordanelle and many other lakes of The C.U.P. filled in record time. That should have been a clue that they can empty in record time as well. Say a prayer for Powell. Or make a plan for the refugees from Phoenix!
Well, dammit all over again
I live in Bulhead city AZ just a 2 minute drive from the most beautiful river I have ever seen. I have taken it for granted. I, like so many others are very concerned about the current drought situation. Thank you for a great video. I had no clue.
Thank you for watching! These issues are tough and complicated and I don't presume to have all the answers, but with folks like you engaging in topics like this, I think we can find a better way forward.
I’m in my mid 20s and it’s crazy how I can say I’ve watched the Colorado river slowly dry up my entire life. Had dreams to go kayaking in the river one day but I’m afraid those dreams have dried up.
Every single thing filmed in this video was once UNDER WATER!!!!
We shouldn't pump water from out of deserts into deserts. If we can't live off the air/ground water in the region, maybe we just shouldn't live there
@@tylerjones1645 you'd think
Great video yet again, has always struck me that Lake Powell was named after someone who said the river should not be damned for irrigation/ or to support heavy settlement.
His ideas on small scale, watershed-based development were certainly before their time. I'm sure he'd be quite disappointed in the way water is managed there today... Thanks for watching!
Dammed, not damned.
@@ntdscherer
When they dammed the river they damned themselves.
damned. Well, I'll be damned if I'll approve of this river being dammed!!
@@ntdscherer where the hell is the damn dam tour?!
I remember swimming in the red water of the Colorado as a kid before the dam. The water was red and silky.
Deciding after the fact that "they" misestimated the effect is a problem. Do the dams get torn down, and the people who rely on that water have to move after their property values reach zero has massive social and economic consequences to the nation. Leaving the dams in place has shown economic consequences as well, positive and negative. The environmental effects of what has been done may not ever be undone by opening the flow. Taking out the dam or dams will not "bring back what was lost", it will create a new and different effect all along the river. It is not "do we want to undo the damage", it is "what will the net long term effect be" whichever way we go.
K
Not true , just your blind opinion , nature will always revert back
The bottom of that lake must resemble a landfill at this point.
Oddly enough, there's plenty of water for the population size living in the American southwest. It's the cotton, almond, alfalfa farms that use 80-93% of the water.
We took a two hundred year old dam out by me and within days eel and herring were spawning where they hadn't in centuries. Nothing ever is the same but Nature can bounce back fast.
This is a very well done video. The quality and thought put into it is reminiscent of a time when books and media sources still encouraged their consumers to think and come to their own conclusions. I sincerely enjoyed this for its historical and informational value.
Thank you! I always try to put out well-researched and well-thought out information, even if I don't always get it right or people don't always agree with me. I also encourage plenty of discussion and alternative opinions on the issues I talk about on my channel - these issues are pretty complicated and there are lot of valid viewpoints. Ultimately, I just try and put out a good video and, like you said, just let people come to their own conclusions. Thanks again for watching!
….good video with extreme bias…you can’t drive a PRIUS without a power dam or coal plant to charge it (or a polluting Chinese lithium mine to build it)
Real Estate developers were keenly aware that Phoenix had overbuilt, even in the 1970's. But there was money to be made! Currently there are several Phoenix adjacent towns that are being cut off. They can't hire the local Water hauling company to bring them water, because the water hauler is no longer allowed to buy Phoenix water. The Phoenix water table has been dropping for 50 years, also causing adjacent cities to drill deeper to hit water too.
When I first "saw" this dam, the diversion tunnel was recently put into service with the coffer dam diverting the flow. The lower former river bed had been cleaned to bedrock and the initial cement pours were just starting.
What a sad sight.
My father worked at the Yuma Projects office during the channelizing of the lower Colorado River. The MAIN reason Glen Canyon Dam was built was to extend the life of Hoover/Bolder Dam. The silt load coming out of the Grand Canyon was going to turn Hoover into a large water fall due to silt build up. Glen Canyon is used as a settling basin.
The silt comes rushing out of the canyon flows into the lake where the water drops it silt load before flowing on down stream to spin the turbines of hoover Dam. The Bureau of reclamation basically turned the lower Colorado into a giant irrigation canal. in some places the river is now unnavigable and only 1-2ft. deep.
I've never heard the Silt Theory - your right it does, but I would be surprised that that was their intention.
@@weaverlance you are correct that there were other reasons used to win approval from the congress to build Glen Canyon. But, I beg to differ with you. I am not sure of what study you are quoting, But the fact is, there are MANY places below Parker Dam where the river is indeed 1ft-2ft deep. There is so little water in the river below Blythe, around Walters Camp that you can no longer drive a boat from Blythe to Yuma anymore. Mexico is also complaining that the Colorado River water allotment they are receiving is so saline as to be borderline unusable for irrigation.
@@thuringervonsausage5232 You are right. No politician does things for just one reason. Personal enrichment is another, as is the power and control that go along with it. It is almost impossible to run for congress if you ARE NOT A MILLIONAIRE to start with.
The main Reason Glenn Canyon was built was because the Sierra Club sopped the Dam in Dinosaur. So they literally snuck it in.
This is probably going to sound foolish, but hear me out. What if the desert states that grow food built large greenhouses? That would allow for multi-tier farming and conservation of water.
There's a lettuce farm near me that has this monster sized building where they grow, process, and sell several kinds of leafy greens, so it's certainly do-able.
Learn about permaculture and a guy named Geoff Lawton. And about the huge permaculture projects in Ethiopia and other African countries. There are many examples here on YT. Permaculture is all about harvesting and storing water with strategically designed contour swales and ponds, and using the natural biological system such as useful plants and trees and bio mass to restore the land and the natural water tables, and the fertility from the soil. Even projects that are located in the desert were very successful.
We need to be doing that so we can prepare to live on uninhabitable planets. It will be much easier on earth. Lol
After all,isn’t that what we were sold at world’s fairs and Disney-world ?
Sorry for my disjointed thought process. Many don't know that two dams were proposed in the Grand Canyon, but in what was only Grand Canyon National MONUMENT at the time. One at Marble Canyon, just upstream from the Little Colorado River confluence and one that was to flood the lower portion of Grand Canyon with the upper slack water of its reservoir reaching upward to the boundary of the park portion of "the canyon." I've seen the surveyor's markings for the Marble Canyon proposal on the rocks at the canyon's bottom. It's all part of the National Park now, none of this monument nonsense.
Reclamation also assured that no one could see the reservoir from the rim of the canyon. Never mind the people who hike down, or those who go rafting. After all, the inner canyon is just ugly billion year old rock. Boring! Reclamation said by flooding the canyon, it would be more accessible.
It gets worse with the Marble and Bridge Canyon dams. Like Glen Canyon Dam, their purpose was to generate electricity, which Reclamation would sell to finance more projects. Floyd Dominy himself called them "cash register dams."
David Brower and the Sierra Club screwed up with Glen Canyon. At least they redeemed themselves by stirring up public outrage against these cash register dams. In one of the most brilliant and effective advertising campaigns ever, in 1975, they flooded every major newspaper with an ad that said, "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel to be nearer the ceiling?"
@@caseycooper5615 As I remember Brower made the statement during a congressional hearing after Dominy made the statement that more people would be able to see the canyon if it was flooded.
The Marble Canyon dam would be in view from the rim at Desert View, so I would dispute what the BOR said about it. That unless they built the dam upstream of where I saw the markings on the canyon wall, which were upstream of the Little Colorado confluence. If those dams were built we would still have problems with little water in the reservoirs. Also if those were not in view of the south rim, the massive electrical facilities would have to be on the rim. Plus, roads would have to have been built to each site for construction access and maintenance.
@@wannabetowasabe I absolutely agree with you. I hope you took my dry sarcasm for what it was. Their only purpose was to generate power and make money. You're right about Marble Canyon - it would have been just upstream of the confluence with the Little Colorado. I saw plans for miles of roads and other infrastructure that would have paved over places sacred to the Navajo. I recall part of the plan was to have a miles long tunnel paralleling the Colorado, emptying at Bridge Canyon. The idea was to have the penstocks in this tunnel,, so as so get more drop, generating more electricity.
I would love to see video of Brower using the Sistine Chapel line when he testified in Congress. Regardless, I saw copies of the ad campaign, which rivals Johnson's _Daisy_ ad for effectiveness.
They wanted the Dam in Dinosaur Colorado - that was the Sierra Clubs big beginning, while they fought that - Glen Canyon was basically snuck in.
It's a Land Watch issue. New Mexico has been having those issues majorly and I hope we will Not be seeing effects in the next several decades
Southern California Always has these problems. Always
The biggest problem is Colorado is taking the water from the west of the Rockies and moving it to the east side, and that is causing floods and the water is only being used once. The water on the west side of the Rockies gets used up to 20 times before being released to open river.
blue mesa reservoir (west slope) has been 80% depleted by giving water to Lake Mead
Here in California, water is liquid gold. Much of the water has been used to grow America’s fruit and vegetables(along with the Central Valley aquifer). It’s hard to make a case for these dams not being crucial for the US as a whole. The environmental cost has been enormously high, but so have the benefits. Recreation seems like such a minor reason to build a dam. Irrelevant in a world where the SouthWest is running out of water.
We can grow our food without California it's cool
We as a nation have to change our dietary habits back to being “seasonal” consumers and not count on the west, that isn’t “running out” of water, it simply expanded past its natural sustainable size.
I lived in Nevada up until a few years ago. I left because Hoover Dam is pretty much dry. I used to boat and fish there. They have moved the dock area was moved at least 15 times and I lived there 14 years.
But you do know S. Nevada doesn't have water issues.
I went there twice, one in the late 2000s early 2010s (Was a kid, difficult to fully remember), and in 2019 over the summer months when I was living out west. It’s bizarre to see the water level lower so much so the rocks surrounding it were “bleached” white. Wondering what’ll the water level will be in another 10~ or so years.
@@Stentinalization The rocks aren't "bleached white", that is alkali in the water from when the reservoir(s) were at full pool, it sticks to the walls of the canyon. The water west of the Rockies has a higher alkali content then other parts of the country. You'll see it on the stocks of trees. When it dries, it's very powdery and you can run your fingers along the stock and it comes off like baby powder.
Anyways, take it easy.
@@dmannevada5981 Interesting, I referred to bleaching only as it seems to be the most general concept someone could imagine but that detail gives a more complete understanding. Thanks for informing me a bit more on that, my specialties lie within micro+molecular biology so apologies if my previous comment came off a bit ignorant.
@@Stentinalization It's all good, thanx for the reply.
This dynamic exactly describes the controversy at the Salton Sea.
this is well done and good information enjoyed it very much thanks for doing it. My only quibble is with this idea that we can control mother nature. Mother nature controls us we’re not that powerful. Yeah we can affect our environment as you have shown in the video but nature adapts and changes so while we may affect one thing mother nature will do something else
It is indeed time we considered the questions raised by this and other dams. We need to expand and develop technology for water conservation and re-use. And we need to support our national (and state) parks by visiting those places instead of commercialized resorts. People need to learn to treasure and respect our natural world.
You're promoting the destruction of the dam. I disagree strongly. Leave the dam alone.
Hayduke lives!
Love the Colorado River. Great fishing in the lake. The biggest issue is the water use. Too many houses too many almond farm. We have a choice of energy or live like a hippy. If you like going to Vegas you best like the Hover dam.
Almond Orchards, Pecan Orchards & down by Yuma I think besides some root crops it's almost all the rest Alfalfa.
Creating dams is one of the first things humans achieved as a species so their viewpoint on water management is in line with that
Creating dams isn't the problem, its how we use them recklessly then outstrip sustainable gains provided by those dams.
The questions about whether or not the Glen Canyon dam was built is irrelevant because it's already there. No one is going to tear it down or abandon it.
California was growing like mad and they needed water for those people to survive. People surviving and expanding into this part of the country was important to the growth of the country. No one worried about plants and animals or Anasazi ruins either.
The water didn't ruin anything, it opened up the entire southwest to more people coming here. If these dams wouldn't have been built, then no one would be here and California would look very different today.
Go to Chile some day and look around their desert. No one's there...
It is unlikely that we will ever see Lake Powell and Mead full or at "normal" historical levels in our lifetime.
It's unlikely we will have a "normal" lifetime.
I don't know how anyone could read Edward Abbey and want to do anything other than destroy Glen Canyon dam. Especially his story in Desert Solitare of his trip through Glen Canyon right before it was flooded. Desert Solitare should be required reading. Thankfully, here in Arkansas, the Buffalo River was barely saved from a similar fate. That's a great story in itself.
Just read Desert Solitaire and it was fantastic. Just remember that he embellished the hell out of it. Like how it wasn't one summer but was over two years and that he was alone... with his wife and kid. That said every damned word of it is true even if not factually correct. The San Rafael Swell is still mostly undeveloped and you can "get out of your metal coffin" and walk there. I'm actually angry that Capitol Reef, my favorite park, was chosen over the Swell for park status, the place is truly that extraordinary.
I'm more of a fan of The Emerald Mile, which talks directly about the dams and the Colorado. Also... get rid of that damn dam. Glen canyon as it was might be gone, but the wilderness will make a new masterpiece out of it.
NPS ironically sells his book in all their gift shops, including Arches and Glen Canyon :(
Another great book on this topic is "Goodbye to a River" by John Graves. It's about his trip down a river in Texas. Can't recall the name. Good read.
Desert Solitare is one of my favorite all time books! Another one: ‘The Place No one Knew -Glen Canyon on the Colorado’ by Elliot Porter is a gorgeous coffee table book of Glen Canyon before it was drowned. Sadly, it is no longer in print, used copies are probably available, though.
Convenient how one of the benefits of having a damn was never mentioned. which is because of this drought the reservoir was the only reason why people had water in California last year.
And they just kept using water like their wasn’t a drought. Clueless people.
When talk of dams, it's true they took alot away, but also added alot. I am 65 and from a few years old, have loved nature and have hicked uncountable miles of wild areas. One of the first things I found out was that almost all animals will be within a short way of water. Dams have created much larger shorelines and as such, alot of new habitat for wildlife. We need to find how to take care of how dams are operated to maintain the rivers between and bring back things like samon runs in the north west US. We have lost much and gained much with are dams.
I was at the Hover dam in '84' at 16 years old MAN WHAT A CHANGE I'm sure glad that I live on the other side of the Rockies in the sandhills BUT we are having water isues now also it's amazing how much things change in 40 years
Thank you, President Reagan!!
This is one thing I like about my area of Ontario, I'm always less than a mile away, from a lake or river :)
I'm from the Eastern US. I feel the same way lol
Yeah, keep bragging, and they'll put in a canal.
Certain states that have been allowing other states to "have" their allocated water as they haven't needed it, are now facing shortages & need their allotment. The states who had benefitted from the other states not needing their allotted water are now angry about the water not going to them (was a gift from the other states)...
I don't suppose California might be one of those ungrateful states?
@@ronskancke1489 If it shrivels and dries up, and blows away, the country will be better off.
@@MyBelch Yeah how I feel about Arizona and the SW
The water flow is the same amount of water once the lake is full. In fact more water is available in more useable amounts.
@@NatureShy %75 of the country wants California to go away.
Interesting argument. This is not an informational documentary, but more of a biased opinion piece. I encourage people to read and understand all the facts of the CRSP before jumping to conclusions, particularly if they live in the southwest.
Hey Chris, thanks for your comment. I think it's pretty clear from my video that I do have a certain way of thinking about this issue. But I would argue I still presented some compelling facts to support that - something I always try to do in my videos. I always encourage alternative opinions on my channel as well, so feel free to present a different view of things if you'd like. Thanks for watching.
Chris I totally agree , most these people have never been out west. they think there's houses everywhere and it's overpopulated. they all care more about animals and plants then they do human life.
@@NationalParkDiaries you are like an attorney agrueing a case, or a magacian, push your strong points and hide the rabbit..
You can build a hydro facility without a huge dam: Take the Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant inside the Glenwood Canyon, for example. They run a pipe from an intake upstream, and bring the water downhill to a later section of the river, where they put a generator just before the discharge pipe. The natural elevation change is enough to make a significant head pressure
Hydroelectric is just to unreliable in the long term vs the cost to build it and the massive emissions required to make all the concrete/steel/copper. Between its moderate electric generation capacity and the risk that weather patterns today may not be the weather patterns in 30 years, it's an investment unlikely to be worth it. Nuclear energy requires the same amount of construction materials, but they make far more electricity and they do it 24/7/365 without altering massive landscapes and rivers. They last 50+ years and could be built to last even longer than that. At this point hydro should be a limited use option.
@@karlschauff7989because wind and solar are ohh so environmentally friendly??? Bullshit
As long as the dam can produce power you can't get rid of it because replacing it would require some fossil fuels. That would negate the land restoration value because they can't replace all of it with solar and wind power. If it quits generating power due to low water someone needs to research at that time the chances of whether water will return.
The big problem here is not whether it was worth building the dam, but what happens when the water just doesn’t show up as expected, and boat ramps end up high and dry, and the electricity generated is reduced, and the allotted amounts need to be renegotiated. And we have built a dependency on something over which we ultimately have no control. Sounds like a recipe for trouble, or worse.
Nuclear power for the save!
No trouble for me. I didn’t move to an arid desert. Screw em.
@@blackhawk7r221 I moved to the desert from Western Oregon and I'll stay. Its the other morons who aren't adapting to the realities of desert life that are going to flee the desert when it comes back for what its due. Then they'll be your problem. Best of luck.
This is the 1st time since it was built that this has happened. In 1984 (I think?) Flood waters were not properly estimated & the dam was inches from being "Crested" if water poured over it, it would have basically Self destructed. Dam Workers were Actually using Plywood on the top of the dam to stop it from cresting.
This presentation missed a very simple solution. Fix that interstate compact and adjust draws on the river to flow and some reserve
In my opinion, no solution is simple when it comes to the Colorado River. But you're right in the sense that the Colorado River Compact needs to be renegotiated, or at the very least updated, given current river flows and water usage.
I just found your channel. I watched all 3 of your videos on dams. It answered a lot of question I've had for years. Thank you!
Man always seems to make things worst with their "great" ideas, only to realize decades later that perhaps they've created new or a bigger problem. Now what do we do?
Thanks for being here! Dams are certainly a contentious issue, especially the 3 I highlighted in my videos. There's no easy answers considering the scale of this system and the people that rely on them, but my hope is that we can at least learn from our mistakes and identify opportunities like the Elwha for sensible removal and restoration.
Dams now seems to be a relatively short term profitable solution to the need for water, giving a false sense of water security!
Human beings, animals and crops need water to survive. That should be the number one priority.
I knew a guy once who heard a Professor speak on how the damn was a big mistake and that it was just built for greedy, Capitalist reasons. They didn't know what they were doing back then. Many innocent plants have suffered as a result.
I've a few degrees myself. Done some university work, too. Hard science or no do your own investigating. Increasingly, social and political maturity are a distant second oftentimes these days.
Those plants were guilty. They only pretended to be innocent.
You want to see some cruelty to nature? Check out what communists/socialists have done. Not that the American Indians were behind hand -stampeding a thousand buffalo over a cliff so they could use one or two. Destruction of habitat and wildlife and other Indians was as natural to Indians as slavery was to the Comancheria. I've watched Andean campesinos torch whole mountainsides over one bushmaster.
The original allocation of 1922 was based on politics, not science. The upcoming renegotiation will be similarly flawed. Basically it will work until it doesn’t, there is no contingency plan.
Just like covid policies. Nothing ever changes when power and money is involved.
@@RobertPetersen1z2y Are you one of those Covid conspiracy theorists?
@@Thomas63r2 Do you believe everything the Government tells you? Do you believe that Fauci always told the truth? Do you believe that Pfizer told the truth? Do you believe that widespread Government mandates are legal and Constitutional?
@@RobertPetersen1z2y Okay, so you are a reductionist. You might as well take it all the way, and argue that nothing is real. Please I would ask you to stop making everything into a vast conspiracy theory. In the history of pandemics such reactions always emerge, then fade with the passage of time. Meanwhile, respectfully back on topic: my point was that the allocation of water in the 1922 agreement was not based on its actual availability, which is forcing the situation now at hand. My second point was the same error will likely be repeated in the renegotiations. Scarce fresh water is the true gold of the earth. It appears to me that we have treated the relatively wetter last 120 years or so as normal - against a longer and drier historical record. Humans may enjoy living in warm dry areas, but nature may have other plans for its sustainability.
@@Thomas63r2 You asked me a question on whether I was a conspiracy theorist. I responded with questions back to you to better ascertain if you were interested in reconsidering your labeling of me. But, alas, by your follow up response it's clear that you are a Labelist. You labeled me twice in two comments and both labels you tried to impose on me are wrong. But, that won't stop people like you from doing this over and over. You're perfectly happy to simply throw a label on someone and engage in ad hominem attacks rather than actually offer an opinion of your own creation in furtherance of discussion. You behave no better than the typical school yard bully.
Dams are not the answer. Oregon found out the hard way after the salmon began disappearing, cut off from their place of birth. Lack of salmon caused entire food systems to collapse. Fish enrich the water, provide food to carnivores, including humans. Oregon is now dismantling some dams, but irreparable damage has been done to the ecosystems. This is especially evident with the climate of the Pacific Northwest becoming drastically warmer and dryer.
One of the things I never thought about with the salmon runs is the impact of the oceanic nutrients they bring into these freshwater ecosystems. Absolutely vital. And of course, dams sever that link completely.
This isn't Oregon, but I have a video about the Elwha dam removals in Washington that touches on these sorts of impacts if you're interested: th-cam.com/video/Q3ooEH3cGHs/w-d-xo.html
@@NationalParkDiaries I think I've seen it, but I'll take a look to be sure.
Nope. I hadn't seen it. Watching it now and now subscribed!
@@samsmom1491 Thanks and welcome to the community!
Hi can you please make a video about the California central valley? The Tulare lake was massive in the 1850s and they redirected the water to Los Angeles. Now the central valley is drying up to include its ground water. Tulare lake is gone and the valley is in perpetual drought. We are told to conserve water while it is being sent to LA.
I really wish I could've seen glen canyon before lake Powell
It would have been some sight to see, absolutely. They can't replace the real thing, but The Glen Canyon Institute has a gallery of pre-dam photos if you're interested: www.glencanyon.org/pre-powell-photos/
The two extremes are both wrong. It is not something to be "bent to our will," or to be "left alone." Its to be worked with in harmony as a custodianship, not destroyed or abandoned.
Glen Canyon dam hasn't produced at its nameplate capacity for some time. The argument for its existence is further eroded by the fact that as a powerplant, it's of fairly low output even at full power. A single nuclear reactor at the Palo Verde Nuclear plant near Phoenix produces that same amount of electricity as Glen Canyon Dam, and there are three such reactors. Building and installing another one would be all the additional electricity needed to replace the dam's declining output. Or, stick a few nice shiny new modular reactors where the Navajo Generating Station is. The coal plant is shutdown at this point but all the electrical connections are still there.
In terms of water use, the flows of the Colorado will still be there. Nearby Paige AZ and the native tribes will have access. Perhaps a side canyon could be flooded as a small local reservoir that isn't as consequential as Glen Canyon to ensure steady water supplies. The sensible move here is to remove the Glen Canyon dam and restore the river and store the water in Lake Mead downstream. Not only would you regain the natural beauty of Glen Canyon's striking sandstone walls but you'd stop allowing so much water to seep through those walls. The Navajo Sandstone of Glen Canyon is much more porous than the basaltic rock that makes up Black Canyon where Hoover Dam was built. Bank seepage is considerably worse in Lake Powell. When Lake Powell was closer to full, it lost enough water each year from evaporation and bank seepage, to completely cover Nevada's allocation of 300k Ac/ft per year. One lake loses less water than two. Lake Mead is also deeper than Powell but has slightly less surface area, meaning less evaporation. The reasons for keeping Glen Canyon Dam are gone. It was a bad idea when it was built and it needs to go.
Navajo Generating Station is cleaning up. I went to Page 2 weeks ago and the tall chimneys had been torn down and not many of the facilities are left.
I have three generations of my family in the coal power plant business including myself they just closed the one I retired from pitiful it was a cyclonic steam generator from Germany from war reparations and it had been rebuilt and numerous times and it still going but they let the stupid Sierra club stop it and close it down
@@ronald5629 The Green New Fool just doesn't solve anything good or effective to the energy but destroys American energy structure and its stability.
@@ronald5629 we should be closing them down. Burning hydrocarbons is dumb when we have lots of Uranium available.
@@DriveCarToBar hydrocarbons aren't doing anything I don't care go nuclear
Too bad the drought has emptied the lake to levels never seen before other than when it was filling up. We need LP full again. The sooner the better.
Look up how many millions of gallons the government has dumped in the ocean this last year.
"Cover the entire state of Kentucky in a foot of water" Don't worry brother, mother nature can handle that
My opinion is that we should be using desalinization along the coast. So many cities use that water from the river people forget that a portion is also required to go to Mexico as well. I am almost 40 and have gone to Powell for recreation for 3 decades. To see the water levels where they are right now is sad. Water management is really bad in so many places specially in California. And they keep building more and more without a solution for the future problems that are going to arise.
Desalinization is really interesting to me. I don't know enough about it to offer an opinion here, but thanks for offering an additional perspective and giving me something to research!
You do realize that 80% of the water is used by agriculture.
@@jimbob4456 yes and the biggest irrigated crop in the United States is the lawn.
@@prospectorsoils1240 You are incorrect. Nice try though. Agriculture takes huge chunk of the water pie. 80% bro.
@@jimbob4456 you are the one that’s incorrect I’ve tried posting a couple different links. Slippery slope for sure. Search “grass lawns are an ecological catastrophe”
These dams have a silt build up that limits their life to about 50 years. Most of them are reaching or exceeding that time frame. So how do you handle that problem?
They would have to coffer it off again. using bypass tunnels and clean it.
I would go in there with my engineering firm where I used to install fire extinguishing equipment in coal fire power plants and take some of that water put it on high pressure and blow that silt away constantly it would have to be sedimented ,somewhere
You could suction dredge it up remove it. Easiest way might be to barge it to a pumping station and pipe it off as a slurry.
Remove the silt with nuclear weapons.
A little nukey never hurt anyone..
Seams like modern dams need a mechanism to suck up silt and to add it into the discharge beyond the power station so that downstream still gets the sediment that they are lacking now. Don't have a solution for the cold water though unless there was a series of pipes that allowed water to be pulled from the upper, warmer layers but that would be a nightmare to manage with fluctuating levels.
I live in Page, AZ home of the lake Powell and I’m not gonna lie it’s sad to see our lake become less and less than it used to be back in the 90s or the 80s
Not as sad as loosing the natural environment was.
This presentation focuses on the negative side of the effort by the BOR to provide irrigation water and electricity to an area that would otherwise have neither. The presence of people, cities, recreation, and industry in the west has a favorable side too, and with proper management can exist with these dams.
I, personally, do not believe that "man" has the right to destroy what God created, for such as this. Some things are just not meant to be !!
@@patriciajackson6711 you act as you speak for God, but the fact is you don't. The Word of God says exactly the opposite of what your saying God said. God in the Bible told mankind to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue the earth. The fact is that cannot be done without utilyzing the earth's natural resources. People actually need items such as wood, minerals, oil, gas, water, & electricity. And the earth just like food, crops and animals were all created for mankind's use. And are not meant to be abstained from. Climate change is a lie!
This is correct. The way it is framed is obvious.
@@jasperbates6760 ok Trumper
@@steviesevieria1868 No not Trumper, I am a Christian I already have a leader the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God.
When are people going to realize that although it is expensive and produces a lot of waste(that can be stored until we find a good use for it), desalination is the answer to the water problem?
Not sure how you figure.
I was watching something about desalinization in a middle eastern country and did the math, if they wanted to avoid discharging saturated brine back into the ocean, they'd need to have devoted like 1/10 of the landmass of the country or something insane like that, to ponds to dry out the brines produced to provide all the water they needed.
@@Nevir202 That was probably done using reverse osmosis, if you boil the water, there is much less waste. Although boiling does take a lot more energy.
Another solution would be discharging the brine up in the north pole where the ice melting is causing an excess of fresh water which disrupts water currents so we could fill the fresh water with the brine to keep the currents going.
From the people I've talked to who work at desalination plants. the reason its dumped into the ocean is because that is cheaper than doing something with it.
@@MegaLokopo Brine sinks, so not only would building such pipelines be among the largest engineering feats in human history, due to the length and size requirements. you'd still be obliterating the ecosystem there.
If you were in a position to build such pipes, why wouldn't you instead propose capturing ice melt and pumping it the other direction? It would be fresh and relatively clean to start with.
And yes, it's cheaper to dump brine than to do something with it, again, to provide the water for a city, you would require evaporation ponds taking up dozens, if not hundreds of square miles to reduce it to salts. That's gonna be expensive.
Or else, you need inconceivably large plants gulping down stupid amounts of energy to dry it by force.
@@Nevir202 My point is that the solutions are out there, sadly it is currently cheaper to avoid solving the problem because not enough people are dying yet.
The ecosystem is already being destroyed from the fresh water. But yea capturing ice melt would be a good alternative. Evaporation ponds would be part of the solution but there are many ways to clean water, and we already have lots of land that isn't being used for anything and any salt water lakes could easily be used for evaporation even though its less efficient that way every bit helps.
Large plants gulping down stupid amounts of energy would be necessary if we weren't already using stupid amounts of energy to cool down everything that generates heat. If you use excess heat that buildings like powerplants and servers use, you could significantly reduce the amount of energy you need. Also if we used, nuclear power generating enough energy would be far easier.
@@MegaLokopo Wait, so you're upset that people are gathering natural fresh water in artificial lakes, but have no issue with converting thousands of square miles into uninhabitable badlands by flooding them with brine?
What kind of sense does that make?
I'm an old-fashioned libertarian, so for me, all the eminent-domain powers that were used to install the dams in the first place, however beneficial one thinks they are, wouldn't exist. All it would take was one guy who didn't want to sell his land where the proposed reservoir was going to be to scotch the whole deal.
I'm more of a small-scale, permaculture kind of guy. Those deserts out West can be pioneered in ways that are friendly to man and environment.
There's a false dichotomy between "use the land" and "preserve the land." We're smart enough to improve on Nature as creatures OF Nature. We're not separate from Nature. That's a big myth. We can choose what our place in the ecosystem is by making conscious decisions.
Small-scale sequestration of rainwater can green up an awful lot of desert.
All plants and animals try their best to alter their surroundings to better their own survival chances, like a tree growing roots through hard stone to make more soil or a mole digging a hole to live in. Or the entire concept of a beaver.
We can alter our environment to our own needs without destroying it for everything else, if we play it smart.
@@stone7281 The difference between humans and animals is that animals don't care what they destroy. Moles would happily eat every bug in the soil if they could. We're the only species who can consciously improve on nature, going back to Druids of an earlier age gently moving a strangler vine from a living tree to a nearby rock, or building an earth-sheltered home that blends with the environment.
A very informative explanation of the cost of these dams for development. Of course you never actually hear about the fact that they knew the water levels back then were above average. They just try to blame everything on the climate change. Not the fact of over development, and skewed numbers back when the dams were originally built.
I would like to hear about the environmental benefits of having abundance of water for wildlife!
Actually desert wildlife had been doing fine for thousands of years. The dam changed the river so native fish could no longer survive in the now cold clearer water. Now the fish are all planted trout.
Ironically, John Wesley Powell, after whom lake Powell was named, warned in 1883 that the central aquifer of the western US was not sufficient to support the settlement of large populations or extensive agriculture. His advice was ignored because the vested interests of the day saw big profits in settling these areas.
Again and again, GREED won over sense, and now they are Paying big time for those earlier Mistakes.
The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. They are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara Tradition, which developed from the Picosa culture.
No such thing as "Native American" ........... Since ALL of our ancestors migrated here from ether Europe or Asia.
@@NoNo-fy3kr Really? Dog whistle much?
yeah & they are now trying to say Pueblos & Anasazi are related. As well as Anasazi is a bad word Racist & shouldn't be used. Go Fish
Personally I think that glen canyon damn needs to bite the dust. Once Powell reaches dead pool, it means that the flow of the Colorado beyond glen canyon damn will stop, which in itself will cause major problems for the Grand Canyon, lake mead, etc.
The southwest has been in a dire drought for more than 20 years. Without the stored water in Lake Powell , California would have been devastated.
All of this seems correct.
And I cannot believe they have not corrected water usage by pricing it correctly.
NO-ONE is gonna flood water their lawn if it costs a thousand dollars to do that.
Seriously, ten fold the price, watch conservationists pop up outta nowhere.
Water is unmetered in Scotland.
Pay a monthly fee and use as much as you like and it's all drinkable and mostly v nice to drink.
We use less than almost anywhere in the USA. I can't work out what you do with it but growing lawns in desert would certainly explain a lot.
Improve your decorative horticulture. You have an excellent diversity of plants and must be able to stop copying north European styles. I suppose a lawn is a status thing ?
@@julianshepherd2038 us Americans are just idiots
So you want everyone so smell like B.O as it would be to expensive to take more then one shower a week?
@@The_Handsom_Italian I'm so sorry for your disability.
Adult thinking can be difficult, but if you try hard, you can make progress.
Good luck
@@reubenj.cogburn8546 it is sad to see you suffer from lack of thinking as well! Only a moron would not know that wasteful irrigation techniques in agriculture account for most of the water usage in the world. Pricing water at 600% more than what it costs now would definitely cause a B.O. problem for sure. It would make alot of poor people unable to utilize a community garden to shave off the cost of food. All the big cities in the southwest are Democrat run and the people who have a lawn to water are mostly white people so we know who to blame with the green grass issues eh? I remember in the 80s visiting family in L.A. and taking a shower like we do here in Colorado and after being told that because of that they could not do laundry for a couple days. They lived in a condominium and the grass outside was as green as could be!!!!
Adult thinking = laughing my ass off , the adults in the room are the driver of the worlds ills.
There is no controversy we need to drink water.
It's called progress.
I love Dams, great video!
We need more Dams, more water!
Yes for sure
Hi, I just subscribed to your channel. I find it not only entertaining, but educational, informative, and thought-provoking. I also like your cinema graphic skills
Thanks and welcome to the community! I will be honest and say a lot of the footage in my videos isn't my own, but comes from stock footage. I incorporate my own when I'm able to travel, but I couldn't tell these stories as frequently as I do without stock footage. Glad you're enjoying it!
When I was young...we went to lake Powell (1980 ish) several times for vacation...and they told us that.the concrete alone would take 600 years to fully cure in the dam...don't know if thats true, but that's what the Ranger tour guide said.
Well, this was an interesting video!!
I have never seen either one of these dams and lakes, and both sides have some valid points in their stories, I think that since the dams are here and in place already, and functional, they should just leave them there in place! Because one thing is Definitely certain- IF any of the dams is removed for any reason, we will NEVER be able to put it back up!!
Because once something like that is gone, it's really gone forever!! And we Don't know what the Future holds...
"Global warming" is a cyclical event, and it fluctuates so much that we really Don't know what events will happen, so it would not be very wise to get rid of the dams yet. We nay have a bad flood cycle in 4-5 years, and really need the dams!
Just my opinion..........
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate your perspective. These dams highlight some tricky issues, that's for sure. Part of the reason I made this video was to provide context for the time period Glen Canyon was built, and hopefully bring some perspective to the issues that surrounded it, both then and now.
Glen Canyon Dam should have never been built, and is not needed. The Dam should be torn out, and the materials used elsewhere. The same is true of the Hetch Hetchy Dam, which drowned a Valley that John Muir said was the equal of Yosemite Valley. Yosemite has so many visitors, that reservations are necessary to camp in the Valley, and perhaps, to visit there. A restored Hetch Hetchy Valley might be a good "overflow" alternative. The Dams should be torn out, the Canyons and Valley restored as much as possible, allowed to heal, and replacement reservoirs be built elsewhere. The location of Glen Canyon Dam, and Lake Powell; was a stupid idea, and was pushed by Senator Barry Goldwater, who never was a friend of the Environment, or The American People. Even the man who headed the project, said it was a bad idea. I could point out, that because of the climate in Arizona and Nevada, a major drawback to Lakes Mead and Powell is the rate of evaporation. Had the reservoirs been built, upstream; the rate of evaporation might be lessened, more capacity could be built, and more water provided to the area.
I am a former resident of Columbus, and saw what was happening, in Central Ohio, along with reading the History of the Area. One problem is that the area has an abundance of natural resources; Limestone, Sandstone, and Coal; and the area is pockmarked with strip mines, and quarries. There was an idea, to triple the capacity of O'Shaughnessy Reservoir, north of Columbus, on the Scioto River, which I liked, and the Dam could have been repaired, and upgraded, at the same time, but the plan went nowhere. Columbus chose to build an upground reservoir, instead, using up valuable farmland in the process. The same is true, of the upground reservoir built by the Delaware County Water District (DELCO). There is, as I said, numerous quarries in the area, many abandoned, where Columbus and Delaware Linestones, were quarried, for a number of reasons. These could be "cleaned out" at the end of their useful lives, claimed by various state agencies, and used for water storage, and in combination with upstream dams, used for flood control on the upper Scioto River. The same is true, in the Muskingum, and Great Miami River Watersheds. These projects should be evaluated, and implemented. We can no longer afford to be a "Throwaway Society".
@@rodrudinger9902 So, you said that we can't continue as a "throw away society" and I completely agree with you on that. But you want to tear down & throw away 2 perfectly functional dams??? For what? Some crazy environmentalist wacko nonsense?? Because You don't think they should have been built in the first place??? Regardless of your silly reasons, the dams are there, and functional, so we need to just leave them alone, or make them better instead of destroying them for some foolish reason!!!
@@smytb I didn't say anything about Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead; you misinterpreted my comment, although I should have been more clear:
Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy Dams, should be dismantled, and the materials used elsewhere. While Lake Mead suffers from evaporation from its position in the desert; there is too much infrastructure associated with it, and the area is too dependent on it. My main point was that Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy Dams were poorly planned, and water supply dams could be located elsewhere, where the evaporation rate would be lower. Arizona could still draw water from the Colorado, and might have a more reliable supply; from construction of a small dam, and pool, at Lee's Ferry, or close to it. There are plenty of locations, on the tributary streams and rivers, that could be used, with minimal impact on archaeological sites, and natural areas needing preservation. There is also the possibility of upground reservoirs, and canyons that have little other value, being used as reservoirs. We could be conducting a survey, right now.
@@rodrudinger9902 That's ok, you have some interesting ideas, but in general, I would still think that we should not tear down ANY dams that are already in place!! Because once they are gone, they will Never be able to put them back! Regardless of how efficient or inefficient they are, we shouldn't be tearing down one thing until AFTER a replacement is up and running! Whatever that is that they decide to do, it should be done first, before they decide to take down the Dam! You know how F**ked up the government is about doing stuff to repair anything!
I visited Lake Powell in 1981, when the water level was high and the attitude still generally positive for the area. It was already clear that the sediments captured behind the dam would eventually make it useless for water storage even without the drought.
probably ought to dredge them up for topsoil, then.
Where I live in CA. We are maxed out on local water and wells. Yet the city keeps approving massive apartment block construction projects. 😡
This is too balanced. You're supposed to say if we all get electric cars the drought will end. No matter what other countries do.
Excellent vid quality and info. You deserve more subs! You got mine via this one. I looooove lake Powell but we have some real conversations to have about the future of water in the SW. It’s gonna get ugly fast without serious considerations toward reality.
Great job! I’m happy to have found this today. Now, if I could just get back to work over here. 😂
Thanks, and welcome to the community! I couldn't agree more about water in the Southwest. Serious questions to ask and no easy answers, but conversations like these certainly help. Thanks for contributing!
This channel is like the environmentally-focused Second Thought and I love it.
bureau of Wreck-lamation
C- & D+ college grads, never recruited by private industry while in college, these failures are in our military, Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation
Outstanding visuals and commentary!!!!
Thank you!
Why does this seem like liberal based propaganda?
Do you feel the word “propaganda” really just represents an alternative point of view perhaps?
It kinda seems like poo poo pee pee to me idk tho 🤷
You watch too much Fox and are brainwashed.
The dam should never have been built. It was not needed. Lake Mead wouldn’t be so low if Lake Powell didn’t have to be filled up. No liberal or conservative. Just facts.
If there was a way to harness the power of some of these rivers without changing the flow of them it would be good. Imagine what having a few spaced out on the Mississippi would produce in power, except there's no way to divert it to build the dam safely.
You kind of need to just plop one in by helicopter!😂 😂😂
I'm not big on messing with nature. I understand why people would want to make a lake in the desert but I don't think anyone can see far enough ahead to know exactly what kind of impact any changes we might make will have in the future. Just like the amount of water measurements those men took. They thought they were being accurate I'm sure and they probably thought they planned ahead for any future development. They could never have imagined today's LA area alone plus everything else! You don't think about how water flows underground and how moving it may effect things 1000's of miles away. It's just too big a scale. They did their best with the information the had to make life better for the people who lived there. That's all I could expect of them. As we go forward we learn new things and do better. That's all I expect from us.
I was just there last week. There's a boom behind the dam, which I suspect is actually a net to prevent more invasive species sneaking through like bass did earlier this year. It's very sobering to see it, to stand there and know the reservoir shore shrinks daily.
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is producing 380M gallons of water a day using desalination… these states need to get their priorities straight
13:38 "Historically High", for what? The last 220 years? A sliver of a fraction of time. Then came man.
This study (www.treeflow.info/content/colorado-r-lees-ferry-az) reconstructs river flows back to roughly 1500 and determined the long term average flow of the Colorado River is slightly less than 15 MAF, but was flowing just under 20 MAF at the time of the compact. When Mexico was added to the agreement, the total allocation for the Colorado River was 16.5 MAF, which is why it's said that the River is "overallocated."
Here’s a crazy and expensive idea that might just help fix all these issues… what if we build a system to pump water up to the lake beds of Lahontan in Nevada and Bonneville in Utah? These areas were natural lake systems when there was higher rainfall and cooler temperatures. Having these lakes filled with solar-powered desalinated sea water would provide plenty of water for all the western untitled states and Mexico. The big dams could be removed to allow the river’s natural systems to come back into place, and the hydro could be replaced with wind farms.
There would be plenty of water to give rain and snowfall a huge boost and the river systems would recover their natural ecosystems.
If you refill Bonneville, most of Utah's population would be underwater.
That’s true. That’d be an issue with the idea. It’s really an idea that’d been better to pitch to someone 150 years ago before these towns and cities got so populated. Then we could be reaping the benefits of the lake being here improving our weather
Soooo. Do we just do without the water and power? I think for those who want to protect the environment at all costs should practice as they preach. Disconnect all utilities move out of their house get rid of their cars and just go live in and be one with nature with nothing modern no plastics no synthetics just all natural items and lead by example. Oh and stop using electricity to make these videos. Then it might catch on and more people would see how well you’re doing and then everyone could live as they did before the 20th century. There’s a balance here like with everything And that needs to be found. I personally like the comforts of today.
Let em eat cake, but no water for you, $5 for a cup of water, you'll gladly pay, soon...here in MN we don't have that issue, and no, pipeline for you, since liberals don't like them.
Without the Glen Canyon Dam in place. Lake Mead would have run out of water, dead pool 10 years ago. What has gotten us to this past winter's one season of bountiful snow is the double storage. The two reservoirs have held enough water to nearly allow us to scrape through. Southern California in particular would have been in serious trouble.
The dams ( all) first purpose was flood control, the power generation and water use were only important to get support to spend all that money to build them. If the dams weren't built, there'd be little water to argue about, cities wouldn't be and agriculture would be scant.
Like the dam or not it's there you've changed that area with it you can't go back there are millions and millions of people that are affected by that damn and the water it stores. You've got four times the people relying on that water and power that you had back in 1960 when it was put in. That's just the people that live and drink the water from there and the power but the agriculture that's grown and then shipped all across the country that's the other effect you're exporting that water. You're about to come into the biggest food shortage the world has ever known and these people that keep clamoring about climate change I don't know how to address them it's beyond my imagination that they're that ignorant. Yosemite national Park is a beautiful place today what created Yosemite national Park glaciers and then there's glacier national Park oh the glaciers are disappearing well they did disappear in Yosemite and it all happened way before the gasoline or diesel engine was engineered. What created the coal mines in Wyoming because it used to be a swamp the Earth changes and there's nothing you can do about it it's not climate change it's Earth change. I will say we're not doing anything to help it but what we're doing is nothing to do with the glaciers that disappeared in Yosemite glacier national Park the coal mines in Wyoming.
Well said.... in addition I challenge all these national park environmentalists to get rid of everything they benefit from that is produced by everything they want eliminated or dismantled... I won't hold my breath but I will still challenge them and wait.
he doesn't care about the people he cares about plants and animals
Arizona’s farmers were a prime force in the development of this dam. Before the dam, agricultural areas were flooded. Most of the Colorado River water goes into watering crops needed by California and Arizona residents (than 5% is used by Las Vegas as Vegas has very strict hydro laws). The real culprit is the need to meet the needs of a growing population in the west. Would you tell people they can’t settle there. The Hetch Hetchy provides water for San Francisco.
This video is ill informed. Blaming water projects is like blaming farmers for providing food
to a growing population. Let’s discuss the root causes.
But what's done is done.
Are you suggesting the dam should be 'deleted', how would that work.
If there is one thing that truly needs to be reclaimed it's humanities place IN nature, & not trying to dominate & control it.
If you look around, we're not really great at the last part.
In La Paz MX, Baja Cabos where the Black Pearl was written the geological tours out to islands note that with in a decade of the mega dams the pearls were gone. Only ruins housing birds remain. Can you imagine the impact thru the whole Gulf!?!
The dam was already built so the question is moot. We can only use the history to help us make better choices in the future.
Agriculture was doing well before the dam. Water recreation in the desert is stupid. Las Vegas and Phoenix are a waste.
It’s time to push the Little Pacific project. No more water shortages and lake mead filled to capacity.
Farmer's are to blame with the loss of nature. We do not need 100 acers to feed the community? They did the same if not worse in California San Joaquin River and Kings River.
So the people who grow YOUR food are to blame for requiring water to grow YOUR food. nice take
@@stevescuba1978 with what water the unground water is drying up.