The Rock and the Water Glass

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The Rock and the Water Glass

• Situating Case Studies Within a Holistic Meta-View

Derek G. Ross Texas Tech University PCA/ ACA
February 11, 2006
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Purpose

• Explore the significance of a single event in the
  creation of the Glen Canyon Dam
• Consider this event from the context of technical
  communication
• Examine, and perhaps rethink, the usefulness of
  the case study

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A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam

• 1922 The need for a Colorado River Storage
  project is suggested
• 1938 July 14 President Roosevelt issues a
  proclamation extending Dinosaur National
  Monument. The extension includes Echo Park, the
  area first proposed for the Glen Canyon dam site
• 1950 Bureau of Reclamation submits a report
  (House document 364, 83d Congress, 2d session)
  which includes a plan for the Colorado River
  Storage project

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A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam

• January The House Committee on Interior and
  Insular Affairs convenes hearings on the Upper
  Colorado River Storage Project
• David R. Brower, leader of the Sierra Club,
  gives testimony questioning the technical
  expertise of the Bureau of Reclamations engineers
  in front of the House Subcommittee on Irrigation
  and Reclamation
• 1956 David R. Brower promotes a high dam at Glen
  Canyon as an alternative to the Echo Park site

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A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam

• 1956 April 11 Colorado River Storage Project
  authorized by U. S. Congress. Glen Canyon Dam is
  included in this authorization
• October 1 First construction contract awarded
• October 15 Blasting begins

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A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam

• 1957 Prime construction contract awarded to
  Merritt-Chapman and Scott Corporation
• 1959 February Glen Canyon Bridge completed
• 1960 June 17 First concrete placed
• 1963 March 13 Lake Powell begins filling
• June Dam topped out.
• September 13 Last bucket of concrete placed
• 1980 June 22 Initial fill of Lake Powell Complete

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Saint Francis Dam,1928

• In March of 1928, the Saint Francis Dam, on the
  Santa Clara River, in the San Francisquito Canyon
  in Southern California gave way, unleashing 11.4
  billion gallons of water
• Around 450 lives were lost, making this one of
  the dozen worst peacetime disasters in American
  history.

Reisner, Marc. Cadillac Desert. 3rd ed. New York
Penguin, 1993.
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Saint Francis Dam,1928

• The catastrophic failure of the Saint Francis Dam
  has been called the greatest American civil
  engineering failure in the Twentieth Century.

The Saint Francis Dam Disaster.
http//www.sespe.com/damdisaster/index.html
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• Over 24,000 acres of fertile land were swept away
• Over 140,000 trees were destroyed or damaged
• 400 homes were repaired and over 400 new homes
  built
• Over 100 water wells had to be re-dug
• 17 miles of pipelines had to be re-laid
• 12 miles of ditches had to be re-dredged
• 100 miles of fences were rebuilt
• 10,569 acres of agricultural crops were swept away

The Saint Francis Dam Disaster.
http//www.sespe.com/damdisaster/index.html
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Saint Francis Dam,1928

• In the end, no single cause could be found to
  which to attribute the catastrophic failure.
• However, when an investigator dropped a piece of
  rock abutment which had previously supported the
  dam into a glass of water, it dissolved in a few
  minutes.

Reisner, Marc. Cadillac Desert. 3rd ed. New York
Penguin, 1993.
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Glen Canyon Dam, 1956

• David Brower, Sierra Club President, had
  previously argued against a dam site by proving
  that the proposed dam site was unstable
• California Congressman Craig Hosmer picked up on
  Browers argument, and had one of his colleagues
  pour water into a glass containing a piece of
  Chinle shale, taken from Glen Canyon, which
  rapidly disintegrated

Cosco, Jon M. Echo Park Struggle for
Preservation. Boulder Johnson Books, 1995.
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Glen Canyon Dam, 1956

• Arizona Congressman Stewart Udall brought part of
  a core sample from the dam site itself
• In response to Hosmer, Udall dropped the small
  cylinder of sandstone into a glass of water.
  After describing the benefits of building the
  Glen Canyon Dam, Udall smiled and drank the clear
  water as his colleagues showered him with hearty
  guffaws.
• Before the day was over, the House approved the
  project

Cosco, Jon M. Echo Park Struggle for
Preservation. Boulder Johnson Books, 1995.
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Possible Technical Communication Lessons

• Effective technical communication acknowledges
  history
• Effective technical communication takes into
  account opposing viewpoints and arguments
• Effective technical communication appeals to an
  audiences emotions

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Glen Canyon Dam and Powerplant Self-Guided Tour,
1977
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Case Studies are vital to knowledge-creation

• Case studies signify a coalesced, active field
  of inquiry to researchers, administrators, and
  funding agencies.
• Readily available
• Often interesting
• Effective heuristics
• Case studies can be molded to fit the closely
  monitored timetable for getting a graduate
  degree.

Collier, James H. Reclaiming Rhetoric of Science
and Technology Knowing In and About the World.
Technical Communication Quarterly 14.3 (2005)
295-302.
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Problems With Case Studies

• Individually, case studies may be so unique that
  they lack relevance in relation to their intended
  context and/ or use
• Even very good case studies do no philosophical
  work. They are at best heuristics. At worst, they
  give the false impression that history is on our
  side...

Pitt, Joseph C. The Dilemma of Case Studies
Toward a Heraclitian Philosophy of Science.
Perspectives on Science 9.4 (2001) 373-382.
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Problems With Case Studies II

• Narrow topics
• Context-specific
• Anachronisms
• Sampling bias
• Hasty generalization

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Problems With Case Studies III

• A case study does its job only if it yields
  improved understanding of how scientists or
  technical communicators solved (or failed to
  solve) problems, what methods they used or tried
  to use, how their various tools were made to
  interact, how they evaluated hypotheses and
  factual claims, and so on.

Burian, Richard M. The Dilemma of Case Studies
Resolved The Virtues of Using Case Studies in
the History and Philosophy of Science.
Perspectives on Science 9.4 (2001) 383-404.
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Case Studies Have Value

• Working entirely in the abstract/ theoretical can
  lead to problems with practical application
• We believe in stories from Aesop to the Bible,
  to the Brothers Grimm, much of our culture is
  dependent on the story/ fable/ parable/ case
  study as a way to excite the imagination

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Conclusions

• Behind every statement, story, and event lies
  another related statement, story, or event
• Taking the time to situate our case studies
  within a larger context a meta-view enables us,
  as technical communicators, to increase our
  awareness of the interconnectedness of
  communication strategies

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Questions?
derek.ross_at_ttu.edu
Mouth of Hidden Passage, July 1958 (now
underwater)