15/11/23
The USA has 250,000 rivers or over 3million miles of river..
The Grand Coulee Dam, WA is the largest power plant in the USA
The Fall Line is the point to which a river can be navigated and then the mountains begins, along this line a lots of settlements and places of trade were set up. George Washington realized that the US north and south were already developing along different lines and location where there was transport through the Appalachians mountain would develop more. In the north British Canada had access through the St. Lawrence and the Hudson Valley, while the Spanish at the time controlled New Orleans and trade on the Mississippi. Thus if they could not get transport eastwards could never develop properly.
1777 A fort was set up by rebels in the American Revolution to defend a point on the Hudson against the British this later became West Point Academy. By the end of the Revolutionary war almost all US engineers had been trained by the army.
1784 Washington travelled and found the best portage way over the Fall Line connecting the Potomac to the Ohio River. Building a canal would involved different states and this had limitations under the Articles of Confederation. At the time it was felt that the USA was too large to govern as one country.
The Constitution had it root in interstate river navigation and the Federal Government had to initiate interstate trade. Canal companies and River Navigation companies formed as private corps. and were given monopolies to encourage them.
Building canals costs were higher than these private companies expected as well as just maintenance and after storm damage. New York to the Great Lakes was was only an elevation of 600ft above the Hudson River at Albany.
The Erie Canal solved the east, west commerce problem. Nature had done this work by glacial erosion. and it was only 600 feet above the fall line. Freight cost here dropped from $125 to $6 when this was completed in 1825 causing enormous industrial and agricultural development in this area and was the entry of immigration to the west. The Erie growth was to the detriment of the other canals who got into enormous debt in the canal fever and bankruptcy. Since then the Erie canal has been replaced by railways and trucking
1761 till 1801 New Orleans was under Spanish Rule acquired by the Treaty of Fontainebleau later it reverted to France.
1801 President Jefferson set up the first University for technical training in Virginia. In 1802 he establish the Army Corp of Engineers mostly based on French Engineering. 1929 Robert E Lee graduated into the Army Corp. of Engineers and for 2 decades he designed fortifications in Savanna and Baltimore as well as levees on the Mississippi. Eventually this Corp. would be involved in all canals and waterways.
1804 Louisiana Purchase by the United States under Thomas Jefferson. This doubled the size of the USA. The Missouri and Mississippi basin were now accessible. This resulting in sending the Louis and Clark Expedition which returned in 1806.
1807 Robert Fulton made the first trip to Albany on a steam ship that was not dependent on wind, this became a big business on the Hudson.
1824 The Supreme Court declared that the major waterways are under federal jurisdiction and did not allow monopolies The Army Corp. of Engineers were charge with the management of maintaining the rivers. When the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 this agency was charged with the new environment protection.
New Orleans between 1810 -1820 became the fastest growing place and became the second largest city after New York.
Today one Barge Tow on the Mississippi can pull barges of 60,000 tons, this is equivalent to 400 loaded railcars. At New Orleans it is mostly empty barges they return with. Back in the days of Mark Twain he said that man cannot control the river. The US Coast Guard maintain the buoys that indicate that there is a channel of at least 12 feet clearance. Massive reservoirs store spring runoff and let it run out slowly during summer. The bulk of the cargo is grain and petroleum products.
The original Erie Canal could take boats of 30 ton, then it was expanded in1862 and could take boats of 240 tons. This was replaced in 1918 by the Barge Canal by today it is hardly used for commerce rather only yachts motor or fishing boats. The Erie Canal is different from others in that it is entirely under NY state.
1933Tennessee Valley Authority. It was to control flooding, Improve navigation and create cheap electricity. David Lilienthal a lawyer was in charge of it. During the depression these projects were useful in absorbing labor. The construction of Fort Peck Dam alone employed 11,000 people.
From Vicksburg Mississippi to Memphis Tennessee on both sides of the river and levees of solid walls of earth 300 feet across at the base. The flow of the Mississippi will fill the Hoover dam in just 3 days.
When the floods come it is the Army Corp. of Engineers that with trucks and helicopter deal with this.
The navigable rivers are bordered with the most fertile land,
New Orleans Vicksburg , Memphis and St Louis are topographically just outside of the floods areas.
1850 In California a levee district was set up along the river to protect Sacramento. Where these levee districts are set up people have to pay higher taxes to raise funds. Narrowing the river makes it run faster.
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Miles of navigable rivers are bordered by the most fertile soil. New Orleans is an important port an the Government felt compelled to deal with the chronic flooding. The US Army Engineering Corp saw levees as the only option and rejected the approach of reservoirs to hold flood water and then release it in the drier periods, because of the cost. Without levees large floods could spread out onto the valley floor. However the development of agriculture and removal of forest up river would affect the Mississippi downstream. Straitening the river and removing the meandering made it easier to navigate, gave extra farming land but resulted in greater chances of floods which followed in 1897,1912, 1913..
1927 flood was so great that south of St. Louis thousands of miles of railway track was under water, that the cost was felt by the whole nation causing a loss of a third of the annual federal budget. Perhaps another cause of the great depression.
1928 Federal Flood Control Act. Thus the Federal Government got into the act of flood control and this could draw into work enormous numbers of unemployed rural workers, especially under the New Deal Programs.
1957 Example of Federalization when Eisenhower used the army to enforce desegregation against the will of the Arkansas governor in Little Rock.
Later the Federal Government set up weather station flow gages and computer models and the US Geological Survey to warn of flood potentials so that downstream could empty reservoirs ahead of time. Levees usually burst when water pressure under them gives way and so immediately sandbag crews have to be mobilized to block sand boils.
Under the Reagans Revolution federal spending was cut back and states had to pay 50% of the projects so they stopped new projects.
1993 Under Clinton was the wettest period in the Midwest and the question was asked " should be be working and living in flood plains in the first place" Protecting cities made economic sense not quite with rural farmland. Especially since the private insurance industry had no appetites to take on this enormous risk. Floodplains might be better suited as natural ecosystems of swamps and wetlands.
2005 Hurricane Katrina the costliest hurricane to hit the USA.
New Orleans the older part of the City is above the water level but as the city expanded it moved to places low down. Over a million people had to be evacuated. The cemetery here bodies are in tombs above the ground not below it. This was affected by 9/11/2001 as 40% of the Louisiana national Guard were in Iraq at this time.
Under common law a riverfront or riparian property owner has the right to use the water what is considered "reasonable". This law is attributed to the east coast which is water rich. In California miners diverted the water from rivers to had dug trenches . At the time this was sparsely settled state land even though California only became a state in 1850. The mines had to be continuously worked to keep the claim and farm had to be continuously worked to keep them in the great plains. The earlier the settler had a "senior" water claim over newcomers. This was okay but what happened in drought years
1847 The Mormon settlers of Utah with water rich streams of the Wasatch Mountains needed canals.
In the early 20 century the population in the west grew dramatically.
1902 The supreme court has continuously had to settle disputes Kansas vs Colorado.
1922 Supreme court rejected the notion of absolute sovereignty of rivers by states.
1928 Boulder Canyon Project. Signed by President Hoover authorizing what later became the Hoover Dam. It was agreed on the amount of water Colorado ,Utah Wyoming New Mexico Arizona would get from this project.
1939 Colorado was supplying the water for Los Angeles
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While farmers of the Great Plains were notoriously self sufficient, independent setters of the Interior West could not set up irrigation infrastructure.
1847 When the Mormons arrived at he Great Basin of Utah they immediately diverted water within 20 years they had set up a system of canals and diversion dams.
Hydroelectricity served to encourage settlement also stabilized flows and rerouted rivers into canals.
Water used in the west has been dominated by agriculture as it arrived first and got senior rights, then the urban population came and demand for water increased eg. willing to pay a premium for water. Markets allow water to be reallocated to where it is most valued.
Their are property firms that sell all the water and then abandon the land to a dusty useless future.
Container ships bringing good from China return with hay instead of returning empty.
Dendrochronology is the science of tree rings they also reflect the availability of water. Some trees checked are 5, 6, or 7 hundred years old. Sampling is done by using a large hollow drill bit and taking out a cylindrical core. This can tell you about the flow of the nearest river in the past and the climate.
Native Americans are claiming senior water rights in their areas.
A functioning water system , clean tap water and reliable sewer system is a great accomplishment of technology.
In fighting the American Revolution, the states incurred great debts. Hamilton wanted the Federal Government to take over this debt Jefferson did not. Jefferson considered that decentralized finances meant decentralized power. State Governments sold bonds to pay for infrastructure and people using this would pay tolls and fees.
The success of the Erie Canal encouraged other canals with foreign investment most often from London but many canals were not completed and defaulted on the debt. 1842 The US government was unable to float a bond in European money markets.
1837 The railways funneled an never ending stream of grain , beef iron corn and timber, and the US population grew and rapidly growing cities developed and investors turned to Municipal Bonds.
Getting water into and out of cities is an important function. Cities have storm sewers and sanitary sewers, but they are usually combined.
1902 City of local government tax revenues exceeded state revenues..
1851 Chicago lost 5%of it residents from a cholera outbreak they drew their water from Lake Michigan and empties their sewers into it. Afterward the moved their sewers to the Chicago River that was fast flowing into the Mississippi. This was aerated naturally and by the next town the water was clean but with increasing population towns were too close to each other and other methods were needed. Till 1910 90% of sewerage was untreated. In Chicago 2000 cows or hogs or sheep were being slaughter at day. Water supply and waste water treatment had now become the largest item of municipal; government debts.
During the Depression John Dobson build North Durham Water Treatment Plant this was the first of many in the US. The New Deal brought electricity to the rural masses.
1913 Congress passed the 16th Amendment and began in 1914 collecting income taxes to fund the war. After the War Income Tax remained. In the depression cities could not take on extra debt so projects ground to a halt. After WW2 the US had a fundamentally different financial structure than before the war. It taxed nationally and then spent the money via grants to state and local government.
1920 The League of Women voter formed in the aftermath of the women's suffrage movement. They started calling for street cleaning programs. By the 1950s Water Pollution became a big topic discussed by housewives. 1963 the lobbied to clean ups lake Erie. Industries started treating their own waste.
1840 Regular shipment of guano arrived started arriving in New York
1913 German scientists perfected the production of nitrogen fertilizer. The run off of excess fertilizer was now starting to destroy Shrimping
1991 Ronald Reagan economics cut the spending to be able to cut the budget and forced the waste water infrastructure to be paid for on a local level.
Regulation this restricts individual rights for the sake of the common welfare. England industrialization was powered by coal and steam , America's ran on dams.
1840 by this time there were 65,000 dams in the US with a population of 17 million people. The fall line was a barriers to transport but a source of power.. As far back as 1660 waterwheels were already being used in New England. A gristmill was considered at the time a public service and were given monopolies' in their area. Wood was turned into lumber and flour was exported. Later on textile mills formed near water wheels and US textile mills surpassed that of England.
When hydroelectric or steam power was developed manufactures no longer need to cluster around rivers.
1879 Edison introduced the light bulb, every area was given a Electric monopoly, as it was regarded as a public service like the old grist mill.
1970 Clean Air Act 1972 Clean Water Act. Environmental concerns became increasingly valued.
1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) Stream restoration emerged as a booming sector of America's environmental economy. Rivers for fishing were now becoming valuable, trout reproduced in meandering rivers and not the fast flowing straightened ones. Meandering rivers are rich in biodiversity. Destruction of trees bordering rivers had changed conditions.
1930 Institute of Fisheries Research set up at the University of Michigan.
The Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California.
The decline in trout was rearing them in hatcheries and stocking the streams. Roosevelt had been critical of development and looked for ways to preserve the nations natural resources. During the depression stream restoration absorbed labour in local states.
Beavers made dams and this slowed the water from the upstream but beavers were hunted for the pelts. Rock weirs were set up and these cause the water to rise and flood the area, this causes the sagebrush to die and the native grasses to flourish in the damp soil
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