[envoked]

After moving to the Columbia Gorge I became fascinated with the dams and energy production on the Columbia. Over the last 75ish years the whole river has been turned into a battery through a series of dams and reservoirs. The scale is astonishing - Grand Coulee itself produces ~6800 megawatts (about 3x of Hoover Dam).

For those interested [A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia](https://www.amazon.com/River-Lost-Life-Death-Columbia/dp/039...) is a great book documenting the creation and long term implications (from cheap electricity for the Manhattan Project, to agriculture, to the collapse of the Salmon population) of the project.