Hoover Dam
The Colorado is tamed, and the Southwest becomes liveable
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The Colorado River rises in the Rockies and runs through seven states and Mexico, across some of the driest country on the continent. The Colorado Compact of 1922 divided the river's water between seven states, and the division rested on measurements from an unusually wet decade — the river has never carried as much water as the agreement assumes. That over-allocation is why the Colorado now rarely reaches the sea, and the root of the continuing water crisis in the Southwest. Mexico, at the bottom of the system, received no share until 1944.
For children
A dam over two hundred metres high closed the Colorado River and created an enormous lake. The water and power from it allowed Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix to grow into cities in a desert.
Sources
- Reisner, Cadillac Desert (1986)
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Hoover Dam og Colorado River Compact (1922)
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