See inside Glen Canyon Dam as Lake Powell levels drop
The hydropower plant that powers about a quarter of a million homes is run by a team of mechanics, electricians and more.
Tag: dams
Droughts threaten one of the Southwest power grid’s biggest electricity generators
This article was originally featured on High Country News. Thirty-nine years ago, due to record-breaking snowfall in the Upper Colorado River Basin, Lake Powell rose substantially, catching river managers off-guard. By late June, the reservoir was nearly overflowing, forcing operators—for the first time ever—to rely on the spillways. Instead of giving relief, that precipitated a […]
What beavers, nature’s engineers, can teach us about managing water
In areas increasingly threatened by droughts and floods due to climate change, beaver dams have proven time and again to be useful.
Dam reservoirs may be much bigger sources of carbon emissions than we thought
The reservoirs created by dams were thought to store carbon—it turns out they may actually release twice as much as they stash away.
They tried to tame the Klamath River. They filled it with toxic algae instead.
A century of development has fueled toxic algal blooms along the Klamath River in northern California. Now, the native Karuk tribe and its allies are trying to undo the damage.
Michigan’s dam failures are just a small part of America’s aging infrastructure problem
With the COVID-19 pandemic, two dams breaking in Michigan couldn’t have come at a worse time. However, experts say this failure wasn’t surprising.
Most large rivers don’t flow freely anymore
Of the 246 rivers longer than 621 miles, only about a third flow freely across their entire length, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The rest are dammed, channelized, or otherwise heavily developed. “Our results are even worse than in the past,” says Bernhard Lehner, an author on the study and hydrologist at McGill University. “Fifteen years ago, researchers said about half of the large river basins in the world are impacted, and we now say two-thirds.”
Dams on the Amazon River could have widespread, devastating impacts—and we keep building more of them
A new study shows how the negative environmental impacts of dams built in Brazil’s Amazon basin will extend far beyond the South American nation’s borders.
The world’s largest solar farm, an overflowing dam, and other amazing images of the week
The world’s largest solar farm, drone taxis, and other amazing images of the week
America Will Reportedly Blame Iran for Cyber Attack On Water-Holding Infrastructure
Iran hacked a dam, to no effect.