Current Events > Panama Canal watershed waste: Chagres River (did you know?)

(+) Yeah! (+)

All American children learn about the Panama Canal but only today did I read that mountain water is constantly dumped. Locks on each side fill with water and raise ships to the middle. Then the water is dumped to lower the lock for the next ship.

This has to be hell on the ecology.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/feb/28/water.conservationandendangeredspecies

"
Each time a ship passes through the canal, 52m gallons of fresh water - enough for a day's supply for a small city - is discharged from the locks into the ocean.
"

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*scandal* I did not know this either: When Colombia grew reticent in its negotiations, Roosevelt and Panamanian business interests collaborated on a revolution. The battle for Panama lasted only a few hours. Colombian soldiers in Coln were bribed $50 each to lay down their arms; the U.S.S. Nashville cruised off the Panamanian coast in a show of support. On November 3, 1903, the nation of Panama was born.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tr-panama/

Now I know how revolutions are won and it gets better: Americans had written the Panamanian Constitution in advance

About the engineering which I find impressive: In all, 27,000 metric tons (60 million pounds) of dynamite were used. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culebra_Cut)

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