Blogotional

My name is John and I am a science/engineering nerd. (Everybody now...Hello John)

Anyway, I had an amazing time yesterday visiting Hoover Dam, certainly the best known civil engineering project in America and civil engineering on a grand and glorious scale. It is as spectacular to see, given its setting and design as it is functional.

I had two serious thoughts, other than "Gee Cool" during my tour. Thought I'd share.

The value of bureacracy. That's right, you heard it here first, I said bureacracy was worth something. As you camer to understand the dam and ow it was contructed and how it was built, you came to understand it what a remarkably simple device the thing really is. It's grand acheivement was not in it's design, but in the organization necessary to pull it off. It is not really different from the trash dams you probably built in the storm drains when you were a kid, or if you were lucky enough in a creek near your house. I told the friend that I was with that the lesson of the day was, "We're just really big beavers." Size is what makes the dam what it is and accomplishing something that large requires organization which equals bureacracy.

There is a lesson in that, bureacracy is necessary to accomplish big great thngs, in and of itself, bureacracy is not bad. It's when people to not play their role in the bureacracy well, with energy and pleasantness, that things it becomes unpleasant. If you have a job to do that demands you be part of a bureacracy, do it well.

We Couldn't Do It Again. Relagated to the back waters of the areas you tour with the dam is a very large diorama of the Colorado River basin -- the whole thing from Colorado and feeder rivers in Wyoming, New Mexico, etc, down to the Sea of Cortez. The diorama has a light show that demonstrates how Hoover, and all the other dams in the system work and what they do.

If you watch this presentation, which I must add few people do, you come to understand that without those projects, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tuscon, San Diego and Los Angeles simply could not and would not be the cities they are today, they would be something much, much less. Not to mention there would be no irrigation water to the Imperial and Coachella valleys where 30% of the country's produce is grown.

Why has such a powerful display been relegated to the backwaters of the dam? It's unpopular, that's why. It's all about "Man mucking about with the environment - and that's bad." I am confident Hoover Dam would never get the approvals it needs today. Heck, it's companion above the Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon, first approved by Congress at the same time as Hoover was not built until the 1960's and then it barely got approved. It is somewhat astonishing to me that a thing that makes life possible for so many is viewed with such distaste.

What I hate most though is that we, meaning mankind, are no longer allowed to dream dreams on such a scale. The Chinese are gathering more criticism than plaudits for the Three Gorges Dam, something that will change the life of millions for the better. I am not sure we are better people for this.

In the end, the arguements alwasy come down to "I like things the way they are and I don't want you to change them, even if many others will benefit." The concept of a public good has largely disappeared. The idea of making a sacrific today for the sake of tomorrow is almost non-existent. The biblical paradigm of putting the needs of others in front of your own is as rare as a new dam project. That's not good.

And that is probabaly way too much to think about when all I did was visit a dam.