1.   We had few big dams in California then.

2.   At one time my major ambition was to have my father buy me an excavator so that I could make really big dams.

3.   Bursting a good big dam, or even just letting it overflow, is almost as satisfying as planning and building it in the first place.

4.   Big dams, after all, are out of fashion.

5.   But most officials acknowledge that there is scant chance of getting federal or state funds for big new dams.

6.   But the Grand Canyon experiment is said to be the first involving a big federal dam in the West.

7.   He showed me how to regulate the flow of water through the big dam so I could scrub my body without drowning.

8.   Record-low reservoir levels at some big dams, which could imperil migrating salmon this spring.

9.   The big dams and reservoirs are concrete.