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Reading passage Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics

The Ridgeline Dam and Kestrel Valley: Gains and Losses

A grade 7 social studies passage on a fictional dam that brought power and flood control to a region while flooding a valley and moving a town.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify the benefits and the costs of the Ridgeline Dam described in the passage.
  2. Students will explain why a public project can help some groups while harming others.

Vocabulary

Reservoir
A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
Hydropower
Electricity made from moving water, usually water falling through a dam. It is a renewable power source that can start up quickly when the electric grid needs it.
Flood control
Ways to protect people and property from floods, such as dams that hold back storm water, levees along rivers, and channels that carry water safely away.

Also: relocation, tradeoff

Teacher overview

Large dams can bring electricity, flood safety, and a steady water supply to a whole region, but building them often floods land and forces families to leave their homes. This passage uses the fictional Ridgeline Dam to show both sides of that tradeoff and how the decision was made. Teachers can assign it to help students analyze a public project's purpose and its very different consequences for the people who gained and the people who lost.

The Ridgeline Dam and Kestrel Valley: Gains and Losses — Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

The Kestrel River once ran wild through a deep green valley. In most years it watered the farms of Kestrel Valley and filled the wells of the small town of Marrow. But every few springs the river rose in a sudden flood, tearing out bridges and washing away crops. Downstream, the growing city of Grandview flooded again and again, and its people begged the government for help.

In the 1930s, engineers proposed a solution: a great concrete dam across the narrow neck of the valley. The Ridgeline Dam would hold back the spring floods in a large reservoir, a human-made lake behind the wall. It would release the stored water slowly through the dry summer. Machines inside the dam would spin as the water passed, making hydropower, the electricity produced by moving water. The plan promised flood control for Grandview, steady water for farms, and power for towns that had never had electric lights.

There was a heavy cost. To make the reservoir, the valley behind the dam would have to be flooded. The town of Marrow, with its houses, its school, and its old cemetery, sat right where the new lake would form. So did hundreds of farms that families had worked for generations. If the dam were built, all of it would disappear under the water.

The government agency in charge held public hearings so people could speak. Farmers and business owners from Grandview came to support the dam. They described the floods that had ruined their shops and drowned their fields, and they argued that the dam would protect thousands of people downstream. Leaders from nearby towns spoke of the jobs the project would bring and the electricity that would change daily life.

The people of Marrow saw it differently. For them, the progress others described meant losing everything. One farmer told the hearing that his family had cleared their land by hand and buried three generations in the valley soil. No payment, he said, could replace a home that would soon lie at the bottom of a lake. Others feared that the promised new houses and payments would never fully make up for what they were being asked to give.

In the end, the agency decided the dam served the larger public, and construction began. The families of Marrow were paid for their land and helped to move to higher ground, though many felt the price could never be fair. Workers spent years pouring the concrete wall, which rose about 300 feet above the riverbed. When the gates finally closed, the Kestrel River backed up behind them and the old valley slowly vanished beneath the rising reservoir.

For Grandview, the change was a rescue. The yearly floods stopped, and the city grew safely along the river it had once feared. Farms downstream drew steady summer water, and the dam's power lit homes for miles around. Yet the lake that brought those gifts also covered a town and a way of life that never returned. The Ridgeline Dam became, for the region, a lasting lesson in how one public project can lift some communities while asking others to bear the loss.

Questions

  1. What two problems did the Kestrel River cause before the dam was built?
  2. What benefits did the Ridgeline Dam promise to the region? Name at least two.
  3. What did the town of Marrow stand to lose if the dam was built?
  4. Why did people from Grandview support the dam while the people of Marrow opposed it?
  5. How did the government agency decide whether to build the dam, and what did it do for the families of Marrow?
  6. The passage says the dam could "lift some communities while asking others to bear the loss." Explain what that means, using one benefit and one cost from the passage.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: The river flooded suddenly every few springs, tearing out bridges and washing away crops, and downstream the city of Grandview flooded again and again.
  2. Answer: Any two of: flood control for Grandview, steady summer water for farms, and hydropower (electricity) for towns that had never had electric lights, plus jobs from the project.
  3. Answer: The town of Marrow, including its houses, school, and old cemetery, plus hundreds of farms families had worked for generations, would all be flooded under the reservoir.
  4. Answer: Grandview's people had suffered repeated floods that ruined shops and fields, so the dam would protect them, while Marrow's people would lose their homes, land, and history under the new lake.
  5. Answer: The agency held public hearings so people could speak, then decided the dam served the larger public and began construction. It paid the Marrow families for their land and helped them move to higher ground, though many felt the price was not fair.
  6. Answer: It means the same project helped some people and hurt others. For example, the dam gave Grandview flood control and safety (a benefit), but it flooded the town of Marrow and forced its families to leave their homes forever (a cost).

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide a two-column chart labeled "Who gained" and "Who lost" for students to fill in as they read, and read the passage aloud once before independent reading. Allow questions 1 through 3 to be answered with short phrases drawn directly from the text.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to write a short letter to the government agency from the point of view of either a Grandview business owner or a Marrow farmer, using at least three details from the passage to argue for or against the dam. Have them label which details are benefits and which are costs.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "reservoir," "hydropower," "flood control," "relocation," and "tradeoff" with simple pictures (a dam holding back a lake, water spinning a wheel, a house being moved). Provide sentence starters for question 6 ("One benefit of the dam was ___. One cost was ___."), and allow literal answers to be given orally.