Past,
Present, Future
Before
the aqueduct was built, the Colorado River flooded and breeched
a farmer-cut irrigation canal in 1905. The water flowed into the
Imperial Valley for 2 years and created the 35-mile long, 9 to 12-mile
wide Salton Sea. The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1929 provided
for building dams and hydroelectric plants along the Colorado River.
Over a period of 50 years, 18 major dams and diversions were built
to provide each state in the watershed with its share. As a preventative
measure to drought, Diamond Valley Lake was built in the 1990's
and holds enough water for 8.4 million people.
"Dams
in the Colorado River Watershed
Arizona
Davis Dam, Bullhead City; Glen Canyon Dam, Page; Palo Verde Diversion,
Ehrenberg; Parker Dam, Parker; Imperial Diversion, north of Yuma;
Laguna Dam, north of Yuma
Colorado
Blue Mesa Dam, Gunnison; Dixon Canyon Dam, Ft. Collins; Flatiron
Dam, Loveland; Granby Dam, Granby; Olympus Dam, Estes Park; Rifle
Gap Dam, Rifle; Sugar Loaf Dam, Leadville
Nevada
Hoover Dam, Boulder City
New Mexico
Navajo Dam, Farmington
Utah
Deer Creek Dam, Heber; Flaming Gorge Dam, Dutch John; Moon Lake
Dam, Duchesne
Wyoming
Fontenelle Dam, La Barge "
GeoGuide/Dams
National Geographic Society
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/geoguide/dams/plans58.html
|
|
Salton
Sea fish die-off, 1998
Milton Friend, Ex. Dir., Salton Sea Science Subcommittee
Hundley, The Great Thirst, p. 475
|
Salton
Sea and Imperial Valley
N.A.S.A. Earth Observatory, 6/2002 |
Back
to Top
So
What?
-
Water from the Colorado River provided Los Angeles with feeling
of unlimited population growth.
- The Salton Sea environment is a controversy. The government has
held to a "do nothing" policy and environmentalists are
angry that the sea is dying through evaporation and pollution.
- Seven states are responsible for the river, leading to disagreements
in allocation, toxin clean up, and unforeseen problems.
