THE HOOVER DAMBY: SID AND VIC

Need for the Hoover Dam

• The Colorado River was growing out of control– Flooding increased rapidly– The surrounding states

needed water to support people• Arizona• Wyoming• Colorado• New Mexico• Utah

Serving the Public

• Electricity– Supplies 1.3 million people

with electricity • Water– Supplies surrounding states

with drinking water• Flood Prevention– Prevents floods by holding

water back

Disservice to the Public

• Releases Methane– Still water causes organic

matter to die, releasing methane.

• Riverbed Lowering– The pressure of the still water

is digging into the riverbed• Destroys Natural ecosystems

– Many animals lose their shelters

• Water Quality is disturbed

Methane

• Methane is 25 times stronger than CO2

• It is released by dead matter

• Plants die due to no movement

Riverbed Lowering

• The riverbed is lowering due to the water building up

• In 9 years, the water table sank 4 meters.

Water Quality

• The amount of dissolved oxygen is lowered because the water is still.

• The temperature is cooler than the normal river.

Engineering Challenges.

Diversion Tunnels • Two 50-foot diameter tunnels drilled into the canyon. • The tunnels diverted the water around the dam while it was being constructed• The tunnels are a combined 3 miles in length

The Canyon

• The river over millions of years sunk down into the canyon

• This created many crevasses and loose rocks, which had to be removed

• Men called “High-Scalers” swung on swings on the cliffs to place dynamite into them to blast away the lose rocks.

Building Materials

• Use of quick-dry concrete • This called for the concrete to be required to

be moved quickly from the production plant to the dam site.

• If it was not moved quickly enough it would set, and had to be scraped out by hand.

“It’s a dam controversy”

Name of the dam

• Originally named “Boulder Dam” • At its opening ceremonies, a person called it

“Hoover Dam” and the name stuck • Changed back to “Boulder Dam” by the Sec. of

the Interior• Changed back to “Hoover Dam” in 1947 by

Congress to honor President Hoover.

Conspiracies

• Hoover Dam is connected to Area 51 via underground tunnels

• According to some conspiracy theorists, there is much alien activity at the dam, and there is a government complex in it

• But the best one of all…..

Conspiracies

there is definitely a government complex in the tunnels of the dam which houses robot alien technology, I’m not sure where this came from definitely not Transformers 2….

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How can I get there?!?

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NCSSM >>– Hoover Dam