Current Hoover Dam Image

Discussion in 'Photos & Video' started by Frank Sanoica, Nov 1, 2020.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    This is one of the best views I've seen including the new highway bypass bridge and the current low lake level. The usual water line is along the top of the whitened ring of rock around the reservoir. The dam is now 85 years old +. I have images made during construction; ask if you would like them posted!

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    Frank
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    So why is the water low, Frank? Is this intentional, or is there a drought?
     
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  3. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @John Brunner

    Both. Imagine that lake with it's 550-mile shoreline losing that much water: the white ring is 200+ feet high! Most of the water comes from snow-melt in the mountains to the north. Annual snowfall has been much lower than average for years.

    During it's early years, it appeared the water would always be available in huge quantity. What they failed to predict was the attraction the lake and Colorado River presented to folks willing to live in the Desert; enormous numbers moved into Arizona and California, which both were allocated Colorado River (lake) water. Recently, Tucson was granted new life with the construction of the Central Arizona Project (CAP), an enormous undertaking to divert River water to Central Arizona, the channel being 350 miles long, traversing mountain ranges and all. This placed further strain on water supplies........and yet, water is reasonably priced, considering the location.

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    Aerial photo – Central Arizona Project

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    Mark Wilmer Pumping Plant

    "The canal loses approximately 16,000 acre-feet (5.2 billion gallons) of water each year to evaporation, a figure that will only increase as temperatures rise. It loses 9,000 acre-feet (2.9 billion gallons) annually from water seeping or leaking through the concrete."

    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project

    Frank
     
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  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    @Frank Sanoica

    Yeh, water is a funny issue in this country. I cannot see living in some areas of Arizona or Nevada...the risk is just so daggone high. I'm familiar with the water wars out there. Yet as you inferred, the limited resource is priced to encourage consumption.

    I've commented that there's a gated community (mostly transplants) up the road from me that draws on the same aquifer as the Lowes/Walmart shopping center across the street. The water system there is managed (and billed) by the county. People in the gated community will complain that their water is brown (due to levels dropping), and then ask for recommendations on lawn sprinkler installation companies!!! They are not paying the true cost. And anyone in that community that knows better gets screwed by The Collective. (And the Board of Supervisors just approved a 500 unit apartment complex to be erected there.)

    The smart country folks around me collect rain water for their veggie gardens...they never draw on their wells for that. But we pay the direct cost.
     
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  5. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @John Brunner

    Water is destined to become a greater issue than oil, IMO. Consider that 1 out of every 6 human beings on this earth depend on the SAME RIVER for their water: The Ganges.

    Frank
     
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  6. Terry Coywin

    Terry Coywin Veteran Member
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    I'd love to see the images you have of the dam's construction, Frank. I walked through it while it was still to some degree certainly not finished at all in 1954. Walking through the lower part where those huge tanks or whatever they are the walkway was all loose stone and I had high heels on. Needless to say I was very uncomfortable and irritable. Did not help as I had been up all night gambling in Vegas. I returned in 1960, and it was an entirely different story, but it was still in the process of being built up above. We walked across the top both times and what a thrill that was. Wish I'd had a camera with me.
     
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  7. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Terry Coywin

    Thank you for responding! The Dam holds a special place in my heart for I saw it only by chance during my honeymoon trip many years ago. Headed towards L.A., a sign proclaimed "Hoover Dam <". We took the turn. Given the appalling desolation of the desert to 2 Midwesterners, the first view of Lake Mead from atop the big hill of Boulder City, the sight was breathtaking!

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    We took the tour; wonderful experience for a young Engineer able to appreciate the fantastic difficulties over come to place this huge structure in the "middle of nowhere". The top of the dam had a 2-lane roadway and sidewalks on either side; this was U.S. Highway 93, the dam carrying all it's traffic across from AZ to NV. 50 or 60 feet thick at crest, 660 feet at bottom, span of dam 1224 feet.


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    River view of the future dam site, c. 1904



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    The upstream face of Hoover Dam slowly disappears as Lake Mead fills, May 1935 (looking downstream from the Arizona rim). Those specks are VEHICLES atop the dam! Height 726 feet. The 4 towers are water inlets to feed the hydroelectric turbines. Note the base of the inlet columns is ~ 200 feet above the river (or lake) bottom. NO POWER can be generated when the level drops below the bottom of the columns. Usual operating conditions had water depth on this side of the dam at approximately 500 feet deep.


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    Standing on the sidewalk atop the dam, looking down it's south face, the downstream side, conveys a view showing how the thickness increases from top to bottom. The two structures on either side of the river below are the powerhouses, AZ on left, NV on right. Raising and lowering generating machinery in and out of the chasm is an amazing feat.
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    Generator stator being lowered to powerhouse from cliffs above.

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    The shafts which drive the generators weigh something like 350 TONS alone!

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    View of the 8 generators in one powerhouse; there are 16 generators. I regard this government-sponsored project as the epitome of our leaders' abilities, rarely matched in reality. Bonds sold prior to construction financed construction, not tax dollars. The 50-year maturity bonds were paid off and retired in 1988, the dam having paid for itself selling electric power!

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    Tours of the dam include a walk out alongside a powerhouse, down at river level. The immensity of the structure is incredible!

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    A tour group within one of the powerhouses. Indication here is that this was before the last, and final, generator was installed, on a basis of projected need, in 1961.


    Here is how the power is generated: (note the human image at bottom showing size)
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    I will post additional construction images I have tucked away later. My dialysis slab now awaits.........

    Frank
     
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  8. Terry Coywin

    Terry Coywin Veteran Member
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    Thank you, Frank. Brought back many memories. Even those of my old boyfriend who took me through that dam both times. Were we ever star crossed lovers. Sigh.
     
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