Water, the life blood of the planet earth. With out water, the earth's high variety of life could have never been created. Ever since history has been recorded, man has constructed society around water as a resource. As technology and science increased; civilizations created new ways to store and manage water, this new knowledge came a the production of dams.
             Many people have already dammed a small stream using sticks and muddy the time they become adults. Humans have used dams since early civilization, because four-thousand years ago they became aware that floods and droughts affected their well-being and so they began to build dams to protect themselves from these effects. The basic
             principles of dams still apply today as they did before; a dam must
             prevent water from being passed. Since then, people have been
             continuing to build and perfect these structures, not knowing the full
             intensity of their side effects. The hindering effects of dams on
             humans and their environment seem to outweigh the beneficial ones. As humans and the living organisms remaining today go through time, something is going to have to be done to better balance the effects of dams.
             Dams are classified as either storage, diversion or detention. As you could probably notice from it's name, storage dams are created to collect or hold water for periods of time when there is a surplus supply. The water is then used when there is a lack of supply. For example many small dams impound water in the spring, for use in the summer dry months. This in fact is one great aspect of damming. The waters taken from a dam or reservoir gives a break to the underground storage of water in aquifers pumped out by wells. The wells could eventually deplete the water level enough to cause a sink hole with major environmental damage. Storage dams also supply a water supply, or an improved habitat for fish and wildlife; they may store water for hyd...