By Paula D.
Barteau
Glen Canyon Dam,
Page AZ
August 31, 2015
Glen Canyon Dam
is a complicated dilemma.
It provides
water and electricity to Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and California.
It generates hydroelectric energy that is much cleaner than coal, and more
efficient than many clean energy alternatives, but the construction of a
hydroelectric dam drastically alters the ecosystem of the river it harnesses.
Sediment that used to provide camouflage and sustenance for many organisms
downstream of the dam is now building up slowly filling Lake Powel and increasing
pressure on the dam’s structure. The huge difference in depth on either side of
the dam has changed the temperature of the water on either side, limiting what
can survive in them. The dam interrupts the migratory routes of fish and
consequently changes the availability of food for animal populations on both
sides of the dam. The construction of Glen Canyon Dam involved the extension of
existing highways, the construction of six different power plants, the founding
of an entire town, and an uninterrupted stream of traffic through Dine land
that lasted the six years it took to finish the dam.
Glen Canyon was
home to multiple sacred sites of the Dine some of which are now under water, those
that are not are now subject to increased tourist traffic. Most of them are not
protected by any organization and have no public notifications or markers to
keep tourists who do not realize their significance to Dine culture from
desecrating them.
Some groups of
people are organizing to get the dam taken down on the grounds of being
unsustainable, illegal, and harmful to the environment. Five states depend on the
dam for necessary resources and I don’t think it’s going anywhere, but it
serves as a reminder that the lives we live are dependent on destructive forces
that take and change the lives of others.
What does it
take to live lives that don’t?
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