Drought, growth have Western states studying dams again

The officials contemplating dams should study a little ecological history before they resurrect the infamous dambuilding ways of the Bureau of Land Management, From the Associated Press: The era of massive dam construction in the West - which tamed rivers, swallowed towns, and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and persistent environmental problems - effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam. But a booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months.

New dams are being studied in Washington state, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across the country over environmental concerns - worries that will likely pose big obstacles to new dams.

"The West and the Northwest are increasing in population growth like never before," said John Redding, regional spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Boise. "How do you quench the thirst of the hungry masses?"

There are lots of ideas for increasing water supplies in the West. They include conservation, storage of water in natural underground aquifers, pipelines to carry water from the mountains, desalination plants to make drinking water from the ocean, small dams to serve local areas. Most of those ideas are much more popular than big new dams.

…In other states:

-Four major water storage projects are being studied in California, including a proposal for a new dam on the San Joaquin River, said Sue McClurg, of the Water Education Foundation in Sacramento. Republicans in the California Assembly say they will block any plan to improve water supplies that doesn't include new dams.

-The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which serves Las Vegas, is considering a reservoir to capture more Colorado River water before it flows into Mexico.

-In Colorado, there is a proposal to create two new reservoirs on the Yampa River.

-In Idaho, some still hope to rebuild the Teton Dam, which collapsed in 1976, killing 11 people and causing widespread destruction.

In Washington, the water crisis is centered on the Columbia River basin and the adjacent Yakima River Basin - which produce a bounty of crops, including apples, cherries, hops for beer and wine grapes. Groundwater wells in the region are being emptied to sustain millions of acres of irrigated agriculture, prompting ongoing studies of new dams.

A major barrier to new dams is costs, which run in the billions, Manning said. It's unclear how much the federal government would be willing to pay. A recent study of the Black Rock dam proposal in the Yakima River basin concludes the 600-foot-tall dam would cost $6.7 billion to build and operate, but would return just 16 cents for every dollar spent to build and operate….

Shot of the Glen Canyon Dam, PRA, Wikimedia Commons. Finished in 1966, this dam submerged the Escalante Region underneath Lake Powell, an ecological catastrophe that electrified the environmental movement in the U.S.