Qualla: Samuel Hydroelectric Dam https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Samuel Hydroelectric Dam https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam Samuel Hydroelectric Dam: Introduction https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam/ Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1990, a year after the Samuel Dam began generating electricity, scientists measured the greenhouse gases rising from its reservoir. The numbers were staggering: the dam was emitting 11.6 times more carbon than an oil-fired power plant producing the same energy. Built during Brazil's turbulent transition from military dictatorship to democracy, the Samuel Hydroelectric Dam on the Jamari River near Porto Velho became one of the Amazon's most cautionary stories -- a project where the cure proved worse than the disease it claimed to treat.

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/6w6y-samuel-hydroelectric-dam-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Samuel Hydroelectric Dam: A Dam Born of Dictatorship https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam/ Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Construction began in April 1982, in the final years of Brazil's military regime. Colonel Jorge Teixeira, governor of the federal territory of Rondonia, championed development at almost any cost. The dam was tied to POLONOROESTE, a World Bank-funded project that rebuilt and paved...

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/6w6y-samuel-hydroelectric-dam-a-dam-born-of-dictatorship.mp3 0:06 2 full Samuel Hydroelectric Dam: Drowning the Forest https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam/ Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The reservoir swallowed 560 square kilometers of land that was almost entirely tropical rainforest. Because the terrain around the Jamari River is relatively flat, engineers had to build 57 kilometers of dikes along both banks just to contain the water. The main lake stretches 25...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/6w6y-samuel-hydroelectric-dam-drowning-the-forest.mp3 0:06 3 full Samuel Hydroelectric Dam: Mercury, Methane, and Piranha https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam/ Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The submerged forest decayed underwater, generating methane and carbon dioxide at rates that dwarfed the emissions of a comparable fossil fuel plant. Though the ratio has declined over time, the reservoir still emits roughly 2.6 times the greenhouse gases of its oil-burning equiv...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/6w6y-samuel-hydroelectric-dam-mercury-methane-and-piranha.mp3 0:06 4 full Samuel Hydroelectric Dam: Power and Protest https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam/ Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. For all its environmental costs, the Samuel Dam did electrify Rondonia. By 1990 it provided 36 percent of the state's power; by 1996, 58 percent. Household connections tripled in seven years, from roughly 40,000 in 1983 to over 132,000 by 1990. In 2002, the grid extended to Rio B...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/6w6y-samuel-hydroelectric-dam-power-and-protest.mp3 0:06 5 full Samuel Hydroelectric Dam: A Cautionary Arithmetic https://qualla.com/samuel-hydroelectric-dam/ Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Engineers measure hydroelectric efficiency with a simple ratio: reservoir area divided by generating capacity. Lower is better. The Samuel Dam scores 2.59 square kilometers per megawatt -- among the worst in the Amazon, rivaled only by Curua-Una at 2.60 and the notorious Balbina ...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/w/6/y/samuel-hydroelectric-dam-wp/6w6y-samuel-hydroelectric-dam-a-cautionary-arithmetic.mp3 0:06 6 full