Many people have already dammed a small stream using sticks and muddy the time they become adults. Humans have used dams since early civilization, because four-thousand years ago they became aware that floods and droughts affected their well-being and so they began to build dams to protect themselves from these effects. The basic

principles of dams still apply today as they did before; a dam must

prevent water from being passed. Since then, people have been

continuing to build and perfect these structures, not knowing the full

intensity of their side effects. The hindering effects of dams on

humans and their environment seem to outweigh the beneficial ones. As humans and the living organisms remaining today go through time, something is going to have to be done to better balance the effects of dams.

Dams can also be a downfall to the sediments that need to be deposited down stream for soil nutrition. As the dam fills with water, the area of water near the dam begins to fill up with sediment from upstream. The sediment gets trapped inside the dam or reservoir and begins to fill the area up with soil; that costs numerous amounts of dollars to be dredged out and disposed of.

Dams are harming the environment that people live in. What was

reservoirs. The heavy rainfall created enough water to overtop the

the lands that may be lost. The 12.7 billion scheme was to generate 3,160 megawatts of electricity a day, this power output would be enough to serve a city of 700 000! One of the largest problems with this dam, is that it would be built on a region that meant a lot to 10 500 Cree and 7 000 Inuit natives. Lands that their ancestors have hunted and lived on for more than 5 000 years will be flooded along with 90% of their trapping lines. If this happened these people must resettle, find a new way of life and face the destruction of a piece of their heritage if this project is approved.

There remains a problem with reservoirs which to date hasn't been

shorter than storage dams are used for irrigation developments and for diversion the of water from a stream to a reservoir. Diversion dams are mainly built to lessen the effects of floods and to trap sediment.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Damming Water, North American, Colorado River, Nicasio Dams, Columbia River, River September, Environmental Geology, West Marin, Bay Hydroelectric, storage dams, store water, dams protect, dam reservoir, dam built, begins fill, supply water, salmon populations, effects dams,
Approximate Word count = 1288
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)