West looking again at building new dams

Monday, March 03, 2008

West looking again at building new dams

Drought, Sprawling Growth Have Western States Studying Construction of More Mammoth Dams

NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
AP News

Mar 02, 2008 15:49 EST

The Western states' era of massive dam construction — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns, and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam.

But the region's booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying construction of dams to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months.

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The AWEA's annual expo:
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McCormick Place
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March 28-31, 2004

I was there...
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Why I Publish This Blog:

"One thing that many people do not realize is that states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,
and Michigan are sitting on a gold mine of wind energy potential. Or, more properly, next to the mine.
The Great Lakes are probably the area in the USA with the third largest inland wind energy potential.
Think of just the nickname for Chicago. "The Windy City". Milwaukee is even windier, I can tell you.
Why? Because they sit on the edge of a great flat area where there is both a land-water temperature
differential, and a large flat expanse of water that is comparably shallow.
Oilrigs certainly operate in deeper waters. And you won't have to construct transmission lines all the
way from the plains of Montana to put it to use.

The Great Lakes area has an opportunity to get the jump on wind energy's future, if that fact is
recognized and exploited. Wind energy means jobs for construction and maintenance workers, thousands
of them. Wind energy means leasing rights and extra money for family farmers struggling to make it on
agriculture alone. In most cases farmers can grow crops right up to the base of a windmill. The land
footprint has a small impact on total farm acreage. Wind energy also means freedom from fluctuating
fuel prices. Wind is free. The cost of a barrel of polluting oil can be raised or lowered drastically
based on fears or political whims. The potential gains are enormous. We've all seen the flow of good
manufacturing jobs out of the area. Well, they can't tell the wind to blow in another country so it's
more "convenient" or cheaper to produce. The wind is perfectly happy to whip up opportunities for us
right around here. Most of all, because we here in the Great Lakes region have the potential to have
a huge positive impact on U.S. energy industry emissions' contribution to global warming."