Control+of+Nature+Al

The Control of Nature. Farewell to the Nineteenth Century-- The Breaching of Edward Dam

I was amazed at the diversity of this article and the thought process surrounded by the words explaining the dam in Augusta. At one point John Mcphee writes a million American shad came up the Kennebec before the dam at Augusta stopped them. This article is all about the man made eco-system and the damage before and after the dam was built and the industrial revolution took place. The river provided life and livelihood, but the only thing that actually paid the price was the environment. The clean water act in 1972 was a half ditch attempt to clean up the man made catastrophe. Before this act, the water "would eat the side off a building" it was so corrosive. I have to admit taking notes after I read the entire article really left me in questioning state and if you do the math before the fish spawned they were poisoned. But I am wondering if my opinions are valid. The dam was 162 years of captured water let go in an instant this created a title wave with, "blowout of sediments." I can almost pull out the mixed emotions of the people standing in the "Tree Free Parking Lot." (52) These people, journalists and camera men came to capture history in the making. The same thing would be taking place all over United States at various times, as these dams get older and unsafe. The government would rather destroy them than replace them. I don't know very much about ecology, but I assume that this killed fish, flooded land and might have given the beavers the same reenactment that the tsunami title waves have given communities in which it wreaks havoc.

Amy Lawson