hydrology
The earliest remains of dams that archaeologists have unearthed date back to around 5000 A.D.They were constructed as part of a domestic water supply system for the ancient town of Jawa in Jordan. Over the next few millennia, the building of dams for water retention spread throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Southern Asia, China, and Central America. Later, as technologies increased and industrialization took hold in Europe, dam mechanisms advanced to incorporate watermills. With the advent of the water turbine in 1832 and developments in electrical engineering, the first hydropower plant began running in Wisconsin in 1882 (IRN n. pag.). Over the next few decades, while structural engineering techniques improved, dams multiplied in size, strength, and numbers worldwide. Today, although the construction of new dams is halting ( albeit with less vigor in underdeveloped countries) (de Villiers 146; Pielou 206), they are still being built around the globe for a multitude of social and economical reasons: flood control, hydroelectric power production, river navigation, irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, emergency water reservation, tourism, and flat-water recreation (e.g., NPDP n. pag.; Tro
fx dam removal has been shown to improve recreation, tourism, and aesthetics to the associated riverside communities Another change in the water chemistry that alters many river-based systems is the inclusion of heavy metals (and minerals) such as methyl mercury due to reactions between the reservoir bed and the standing water (Pielou 114, 207). If undetected, these toxins may bioaccumulate by moving through the trophic levels of the food web, eventually reaching humans. fx amend the river and groundwater quality Upstream of the barricade, the once flowing water that housed the riverine habitat becomes still, oxygen depleted, deepens into darkness, temperature stratified, and susceptible to enhanced evaporation which adjusts the entire hydrologic cycle (e.g., Pielou 207, 210; Ocean Planet n. pag.; Leopold 157). Moreover, drowned vegetation in the stagnant water is subject to rotting and may thereby pollute the atmosphere and reservoir with methane and carbon dioxide (Leopold 158; Pielou 208). Apart from the precipitous effects on the hydrologic cycle and river-based ecosystems thus far noted, there are an extensive number of further reasons to remove a dam. Briefly, a few of these are (Ocean Planet n. pag.; Pielou 208-09; Trout Unlimited 17; Leopold 156): Dams are ultimately created as a water reservoir. This impounding of water impedes the circulation of a river and subsequently changes the hydrology and ecology of the river system and its contiguous environments.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ocean Planet, Interior Aug, Interior Apr, Trout Unlimited, Regime Dams, Central America, Elwha River, Erosion Alternative, Glines Canyon, Dept Interior, dept interior, 1996 pag, elwha river, interior aug 1996, interior apr 1996, apr 1996 pag, interior apr, aug 1996, interior aug, dept interior apr, dept interior aug, apr 1996, proposed action, cubic yards, dredge slurry,
Approximate Word count = 1971
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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