Spun Kongsirituwong 9c

The Hoover Dam is both the highest and the third largest concrete dam in the United States. It is located in the Block canyon of the Colorado river on the Arizona Nevada state line. It is built in 1936 and is the arch gravity type dam, it is a thick arch structure which is 726.4 feet high and 1,244 feet long (Boulder Canyon Project - Hoover Dam). The dam is consider the master piece of the twentieth century and has always been historic land mark in the United States since 1985, It is now considered the most famous dam in the world. The main purposes of the dam are for flood control, river regulation, and improvement of navigation, to store water and for generating power. The hoover dam created the largest man made reservoir in the united states, the lake mead is 110 miles long and depth of 590 feet at the deepest. The dam is a good way of generating electricity because it generates renewable energy but in the construction process and side of the dam has effect on nature, economy and the society in both positive and negative ways. The science aspect of the dam is also really important to understand the way electricity of the Hoover dam is generated. The Hoover Dam generates about 4 billion Kilowatt-hours a year which is enough for 1.3 million people. The capacity of the dam is 2.08 million kilo watts (Engineer) and have capacity of 2.08 million kilowatts. The dam release about 15,00 cubic meters of water each second (Hoover Dam and Hydroelectric Power). Inside the dam there is 17 hydroelectric generators, first has 86,000 horse power, second turbine has 100,000 horsepower and the rest 15 turbine has 178,000 horse power each, these generators are to the turbines (Hoover Dam, Nevada). Four tunnels had to be drilled through both cliff faces in order to draw water out from the construction area, the largest tunnel was three miles long and a diameter of three miles (Facts About Hoover Dam),this means that the dam has huge impact on the environment because in order to construct something

so big it would create a lot of pollution and destroy nature. Although hydropower dams are supposed to help decrease global warming, the process of the constructing the dam and the effects of the dam has a negative effect on the environment such as decreasing biodiversity. Some of the effects of the dam are, the dam disrupts the nesting grouse of the desert tortoise, The dam draws tourism in and effect nature in a bad way because the desert animals depend on the plant life to survive and humans damage plants and litter which harm the animals. The hoover dam turbines lower the water temperature, which means It stops water from flowing to the mouth of the river which affected some of the fish species making four
of the fish species become considered endangered , it causes some extinction of warm water fish and some cold water fishes were found (Hoover Dam, Nevada).When the dam is built there are trees on the side of the river therefore when the river floods, the trees die and

rot which releases carbon dioxide and methane which is release into the air (Lengkengs). On the other hand the electricity generated from the dam is useful to the economy and the society, also has benefits to the environment of the lower part of the river.

Spun Kongsirituwong 9c
The storage control of the Hoover dam benefits the Economy because the water that is let out from the dam in the lower Colorado river is used for many purposes, for example croplands to grow variety of fruits, wheat, vegetables, hay and cotton which generates millions of dollars for local economies each year. It serves the domestic water need of more than 18 million peoples businesses and houses in south -western cities, towns and Indian communities in the area. Even though building the dam has a large impact on nature, wildlife refuges and backwaters have been constructed on the lower part of the river to replace the habitat that is lost. There are also programs to help the native fish to recover in population (Engineer). Benefit of the hoover dam on the environment is it supplies renewable energy which does not produce greenhouse gas emissions; the dam allows the control of the Colorado River which provides the farmers regular supply of water and control floods which destroys also destroys nature. It serves the domestic water need of more than 18 million peoples businesses and houses in south -western cities, towns and Indian communities in the area. The hoover dam has positive impact on the society because less than a decade after the dam was completed a complex water and power network was established; it supports the expansion of farms and factories and the expansion of the community around the area (The hoover dam-Boulder Canyon). This graph shows how the electricity of the dam is contributed which shows how large it impacts:

In conclusion the dam has both benefits and drawbacks but they seem to even out, over all I think the dam is a good because it has good effect on the society and the economy. The impact on the environment is large but there are programs that try to fix it which is good because it does not

Spun Kongsirituwong 9c
damage a lot of the environment. From looking at the benefits and the drawbacks I think the dam is good because it produces a lot of electricity in a renewable way and it was a great development and invention of its time.

Works Cited
Boulder Canyon Project - Hoover Dam. 1 Feb 2012. 7 3 2013 <http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=Boulder+Canyon+Project++Hoover+Dam>. Boulder Canyon Project - Hoover Dam. 1 Feb 2012. 7 march 2013 <http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=Boulder+Canyon+Project++Hoover+Dam>. Engineer, The. Hoover Dam. 13 October 2006. 7 3 2013 <http://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/ArticleID/64/Hoover-Dam.aspx>. Facts About Hoover Dam. n.d. 7 3 2013 <http://traveltips.usatoday.com/hoover-dam-4890.html>. Hassam. Famous Dams. n.d. 7 3 2013 <http://hassam.hubpages.com/hub/Famous-Dams>. Hoover Dam and Hydroelectric Power. n.d. 7 March 2013 <http://access.teachersdomain.org/resources/phy03/sci/phys/energy/hooverelec/index.html>. Hoover Dam, Nevada. 11 5 2009. 7 3 2013 <http://www.enviro-news.com/article/hoover_dam_nevada.html>. Lengkengs. Note for Hoover Dam. 21 may 2010. 7 3 2013 <http://www.slideshare.net/Lengkengs/note-for-hoover-dam>. The hoover dam-Boulder Canyon. n.d. 7 March 2013 <http://www2.apwa.net/about/awards/toptencentury/hoov.htm>.

Spun Kongsirituwong 9c