Glen Canyon Dam

There is a major dam outside the town of Page in Arizona. Glen Canyon Dam was built to supply the electricity needs of the state. It didn’t come with its own controversies. These days building of dams will always raise howls of protest. It will affect the people who have to move because their place would need to be flooded. Environmentalists would protest about the effect flooding a place would have on the environment. They will also affect the places downstream that would receive less water because of the construction of the dam. These are all very valid points. In the case of Glen Canyon Dam, it is the environmental concerns that were most prominent, because no only really lives here that would need to be moved. You can say that these issues about the construction of Glen Canyon Dam started the modern environmental movement.

Obviously, the protests didn’t do anything to stop the construction of the dam. The state got its hydroelectric power. It also got its water. Glen Canyon Dam is one of the highest dams in the United States. It is one of several dams that are built in the Colorado River system. This goes to show you how important the Colorado River is. Looking down from the Glen Canyon Bridge, you can see the dam in its entirety. A lake was formed because of the dam’s construction. It is named Lake Powell and it is a major recreational area here. It is certainly a marvel of human engineering to be able to hold back that much water.

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