Dam Statistics

• The world's dams have shifted so much weight that geophysicists believe they have slightly altered the speed of the earth's rotation, the tilt of its axis, and the shape of its gravitational field.
•  Scientists estimate that six to twelve times the number of people have been non-directly displaced by dams, a conservative 472 million people.
•   The turbines of the earth's dams generate a fifth of the world's electricity supply, and the water they store makes as much as a sixth of the earth's food production possible.
• Between the completion of the Hoover Dam and the end of the 20th century, more than 45,000 large dams (dams at least five stories tall) were built in 140 countries.
• The Hoover Dam supplies power to 25 million people
• Up to 90 percent of the Colorado River's water comes from snowmelt.
• In the case of the Hoover Dam, if the ongoing drought lowers the reservoir another 50 feet (currently down more than 125 feet), the hydroelectric turbines will be inoperable.
• The milky waters of the Little Colorado River tributary in the Grand Canyon are the last sanctuary for the endangered humpback chub. 
• The Colorado river irrigates 3.5 million acres of crops and supports 30 million people who drink, swim, boat and divert the water to generate electricity throughout the parched southwestern United States and northern Mexico