Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
That is more the exception than the rule most of the main stem dams are under 200 feet. There are dams on the feeder rivers with less than 30 feet drops. The Columbia river watershed is the example for hydro, but not the norm. Imagine what potential lies in the Missouri although we do have a few dams on that too. Or the oregon and California main rivers.
|
Yeah, but they're very wide--the smallest are a couple thousand feet, and the largest more than 8,000 feet across (Hoover dam, in contrast, is 1,200 feet wide). I imagine being able to make a dam that wide in order to get enough volume to offset the low height only works in a few places where the topography lends itself to that. Also, 200 feet is still pretty high, and most of the Midwest wouldn't support that kind of dam height without significant berms.