There were those who, back in the 1930s, shrieked that building the Grand Coulee Dam (and other dams) was "a thoroughly bad idea." But the government went ahead with it anyway. It put thousands of out-of-work victims of the "Great Depression" back to work. One of the end results was that the dam provided flood control on the Columbia River, and was able to divert water for irrigation, turning what was, essentially, prairie, into productive farm land.

It also provided inexpensive hydro-electric power to the entire Pacific Northwest, making major industry possible in population centers such as Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Spokane, and a whole run of smaller towns and municipalities in the Pacific Northwest.

Yes, it was expensive to build (CLICK) and the surrounding area was pretty messy for a few years, but since it went on line back in the Thirties, it's been continuing to crank out the multi-megawatts, providing power for industry (creating jobs) and making Joe Citizen's electric bills one helluva lot cheaper than they would have been without the dam.

And as the song says,

"Your power is turning out darkness to dawn,
"Roll on, Columbia, Roll on…."

"A thoroughly bad idea….?"

I think not.

Don Firth