WET DESERT EXAM Flashcards
Why is the Glenn Canyon Dam important? Where is is located?
It was the first big dam on the Colorado river. It is in Page, Arizona.
Why was the terrorist in the book upset?
He was upset because there was no water going through the delta of the Colorado river.
What is Lake Powell? Where is it located?
Lake Powell is the reservoir behind the Glenn Canyon Dam. It is located in Utah.
What does an emergency spillway do?
A spillway that provides for additional safety should emergencies not contemplated by normal design assumptions be encountered.
Does water have a lot of erosive power?
yes
How long is the Colorado river?
1450 miles
How many square miles is the Colorado river?
246,000 sq. mi.
Where are the headwaters of the Colorado river?
In the high mountains of CO, UT, WY, and NM.
How tall is the Glenn Canyon Dam?
It is 700 feet tall with 500 feet of standing water.
How much water does the Glenn Canyon dam contain?
It contains 2 years worth of Colorado river flow.
What is important about Lee’s Ferry?
It is the place where the first person (the fisherman) dies. It is also the only place within Glen Canyon where visitors can drive to the Colorado river in over 700 miles of canyon country right up to the first rapid of the Grand Canyon.
How tall is Hoover dam?
700ft tall
How many spillways does Hoover dam have?
2, AZ and NV
What happened with Hoover dam and the Arizona spillway in 1983?
Unusual winter produced increased snowfall over the entire Colorado River basin, melted snow caused the flood. It was the one and only time that water has gone into the the AZ spillway due to high discharge on the river.
What do spillways do?
A structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area. Ensures that water does not overflow and damage or destroy the dam.
What town is on a floodplain of the Colorado downstream from Davis dam that gets wiped out?
Laughlin, NV
What happens to discharge as you move down the Colorado river?
It decreases because we use it for agriculture, now transports less than 5-20% of the sand it historically transported
In the book, at which dam was the failed bombing attempt?
Davis Dam
What is the order of the dams down the Colorado River?
Lake Powell
Glen Canyon Dam
Lake Mead
Hoover Damn
Lake Mohave
Davis Dam
Lake Havasu
Parker Dam
Headgate Rock Dam
Palo Verde Dam
Imperial Dam
Which dam is Laughlin, Nevada closet to?
Davis Dam
What are the Davis Dam spillways designed to do?
Keep up with Hoover Dam
What does Parker Dam do?
It creates lake Havasu and it backs up water for the Colorado Aqueduct, a water source for Los Angeles.
What is the capacity of the Colorado aqueduct?
1,600 ft3/s
Why blow up the Colorado Aqueduct?
It causes more flooding downstream
Where does the Colorado Aqueduct start?
At Parker Dam
What is wrong with Imperial Dam?
It is silted up and has no holding capacity.
What is the purpose of Imperial Dam?
It diverts water to the All American Canal. It is a water source for 9 cities and the Imperial Valley
What is the capacity of the California aqueduct by the Imperial Dam?
26,000 ft3/s
What is an intake tower?
It is used to collect the water being routed to turbines for generating electricity. It pulls water from great depth, rather than from the surface, to avoid sucking fish and other debris into the turbines.
What is an intake tower?
It is used to collect the water being routed to turbines for generating electricity. It pulls water from great depth, rather than from the surface, to avoid sucking fish and other debris into the turbines.
What is the Bureau of Reclamation?
A federal agency under the US Department of the Interior that oversees resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operation of the diversion, delivery, and projects that is has built throughout the Western US for irrigation, water supply, and electric power generation.
Where is the Colorado Rivers drainage basin?
Mexico
When did flooding occur in the Colorado River?
In 1983 when high snowmelt in Utah and Colorado caused Lake Powell and Lake Mead water levels to rise.
Why does Lake Mead need to be released?
Because it holds too much water and will overtop Hoover dam.
Why does Grant want to blow up the spillway on the Nevada side of Hoover dam?
In order to reduce the amount of water the goes over Hoover dam.
Is there more water passing through the Colorado River or the Mississippi River?
Mississippi
Where does the Colorado River end?
The Gulf of California
What materials did the terrorist used for his bombs?
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer, diesel fuel, and a detonator.
Who controls Headgate Rock Dam?
The Bureau of Indian Affairs because the main purpose of the dam is to divert water to the Colorado River Indian Reservation.
Who manages the Palo Verde Dam?
A bunch of farmers from the Palo Verde Irrigation District.
Where does the US desalinate the water going to Mexico?
At Imperial Dam in Yuma, AZ.
What is the deepest below-ground dam in the world?
Parker dam. Nearly 75% of it is underground.
What was the name of the bomber?
known as the skinny man (Jeffrey Calhoun)
What is the compromise reached at the end of the book?
They will rebuild the Dams. 10% of the Colorado River will be allowed to flow into the ocean year round. A treaty with Mexico will be amended to double the allocation of water from 1.5 million to 3 million acre feet per year. Mexico will agree to allow half of their allocation to flow freely into the Delta. They will also establish a Colorado River Delta National Preserve.
Who is the author of the book?
Gary Hansen
Why are dams built? What benefit do we get from dams?
-A dam is a structure built across a stream or river to hold water back. Dams can be used to store water, control flooding, and generate electricity.
-Dams may provide a variety of benefits, including water supply, power generation, flood control, recreation, and irrigation.
Does flooding ever occur on the Colorado River? Past versus present.
The Colorado River Basin has experienced incredibly large flood events in the past. Present-day river deposits can be used to understand the size and timing of floods that have happened within the region. Floods occur approximately in every 15 - 20 years. Current flooding happened in Oct 2018.
On pages 115 through 118 Grant explains why water from Lake Mead needs to be released - can you follow the logic of his argument?
Grant explained that Lake Mead needs to be released because it holds 2 years’ worth of water and the flooding from other failed dams would cause the hoover dam (Lake Mead) to fail, needs to be released or else more dams will fail
On page 121 Grant explains why he wants to blow up the spillway on the Nevada side of the dam. What is the difference between the spillways on the two sides of the dam? Can you follow his logic?
the more water flowing out of the dam means that Hoover dam is less likely to fail, the spillway doesn’t have gates, so it only flows if water goes over the wall, his logic makes sense as he is trying to get as much water out as possible to prevent more catastrophe.
How much water discharges from the Colorado River at its delta?
None
What happened at Lake Powell?
lake Powell dropped and marinas closed, the Crawfords have to sail around Antelope Island to get to one of the last working marinas, right past the failing Glen Canyon Dam.
What happened at the Grand Canyon?
upon hearing of the evacuation order, Sid and Ryan realize that they’ll have to go back through the rising water to escape the Grand Canyon.
What happened in Laughlin?
Gets decked and destroyed
Who is the hero?
Grant
Who is Julie?
considered Lake Powell a really nice place, sad to see it go, wants to skinny dip there
Who is Susan Williams?
FBI agent sent to Davis Dam
Who is Howard?
being a lawyer in an engineer and manager setting such as the bureau of Reclamation, rumor says he was put there to sabatoge the bureau’s reclamation
What does the gov. of nevada prevent from opening?
spillways, not opening them can increase danger and he becomes concerned when he’s told water will overtop Hoover dam
where do david and others find themselves when water retreats in the Grand Canyon
On a high ledge above the river
who cuts the rope when water levels in Lake Powell drop?
Greg
when sid and ryan are told of the evacuation of the Grand Canyon, how do they plan to escape
Go back through rushing water
why are demolations called in?
To open spillways at Hoover Dam
how does the bomber die
He jumps from a helicopter and his body is never found
what does the bomber hold on to
Landing gear
what’s grants goal in life?
Build dams
what is the president planning to do with the destroyed dams
rebuild them
what causes the flight attendent to gasp?
sees a leak in the Glenn Canyon Dam
Lee’s Ferry is located
downstream from the Grand Canyon
bureau gult stream jet
Very luxurious, big windows and blinds, polished wood, grain head rest, leather seats, and wide amount of room
the commissioner of roland is more used to _________ rather than crisis management, completely out of depth wiht the hoover dam crisis
money and politics
Upon the proposal of the snake river rejected by the Bureau:
grant realized that the era of dam building in the US is over and no new dams would be built
Grant realizes the bomber is interested in restoring the
colorado river delta, after figuring that the bomber’s warning of poisoning the All-American canal does not fit a terrorist trying to kill people
while the glenn canyon dam could not be brought down with an aircraft crashing into it or a torpedo,
A hole and erosion could
The first chapter opens with
the foreshadowing of the destruction of the glenn canyon dam
the motivation of the bomber is to bring back the natural flow of the colorado river by
Blowing up the dams holding it back
the bomber knows people can die from reopening the river, but
Sees it as an unavoidable consequence
The bomber dresses himself and his truck as that of an _______________ maintenance company to bypass security.
Elevator
The bomber disguised himself as a member of the ________________ when targeting Davis Dam, making Grant suspect it may be an insider at the Bureau.
Bureau of Reclamation
“Hoover-Two” is a makeshift dam made out of _________ on top of Hoover Dam, to hold back more water and prevent Davis and Parker dams downstream from overtopping.
Sandbags
The president announces that while the dams on Colorado will be rebuilt, some water all be appropriated to keep the Colorado River delta ______, something that was not occurring before.
Alive
Grants and Fred’s reaction to the phone call informing them of the bombing at Davis Dam involves dropping the _________
Cutlery
A worker tries to unjam the fifth spillway gate at Parker Dam
by hammering it
Greg and others are stuck for 45 minutes in a long line of boats waiting to be _________ at Dangling Rope Marina in Lake Powell.
refueled
Sid and Ryan are informed of the failure at Glen Canyon Dam by a helicopter____________ as the grand canyon is being evacuated.
loudspeaker
The _______ beneath the Head Gate Rock Dam should have fled instead of arguing about whether the dam would really fail.
agents
One man with a hard hat waits too long and is swept away by the water when the dam________
breaches
As the Crawfords travel down the draining Lake Powell, they encounter a capsized _____ with an empty life jacket. there is no one and Julie is sure the passengers are dead.
Boat
Grant and the FBI agent find the bomber’s aim ___________
understandable
When the bomber realizes that the All-American canal is too heavily guarded for another bombing, he forces its shutdown with a bogus threat of having _______ the water
poisoned
Oroville Dam Spillway
Tallest Dam in the United States (February 11th, 2017)
More than 200,000 people would be flooded if the Oroville Dam failed.
