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~, ':~~~"'~9r'":'~~" ,,-, 138 PUBLIC LAND LAW REVIEW [Vol. 15 1994J' GRAND CANYON PROTECTION ACT 139 of water rights under the prior appropriation system.11 Once the Compact was in place, river development could be planned. A dam at Glen Canyon was immediately proposed, but its'inaccessibility and location in the upper basin made the project a low priority.12 An alternate proposal, supported by the California congressional delegation, became a reality when the Boulder Canyon Project Actl8 authorized Hoover Dam (originally Boulder Dam).14 In 1935, Hoover Dam was completed and put into service.15 By the late 19405, the upper basin states recognized the need to store Colorado River water upstream of Lees Ferry.16 Such storage would allow the development of the upper river and its tributaries, but still enable the states to meet the delivery requirements of the 1922 Compact. A 1949 reclamation report identified three proposed reservoir sites: (1) Flaming Gorge on the Green River near the Wyoming-Utah border; (2) Echo Park on the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument near the Coloradop Utah border; and (3) Glen Canyon on the Colorado River.I7 The dam at Glen Canyon was eventually authorized by the 1956 Colorado River Storage Project Act (CRSPA).18 The,CRSPA as passed, however, was markedly different from the legislation originally presented. The original CRSP A proposed two massive storage reservoirs and power- producing dams: one at Echo Park, the other in Glen Canyon.I9 The possibility of a dam at Echo Park infuriated and mobilized the fledgling environmental movement, which defeated the Echo Park proposal under the leadership of David Brower, then Executive Director of the Sierra Club.20 The price of victory, however, was a larger Glen Canyon Dam.2I On Aprilll, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the revised CRSPA into law, authorizing Wayne N. Aspinall Dam (formerly Cure. . canti Dam) on the Gunnison River, Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River, Navajo Dam on the San Juan River, and Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.211 Construction of Glen Canyon Dam began on October I, 1956. The river was diverted from the dam site on February 11, 1959, and the final bucket of concrete was poured on September 13, 1963.23 Power was first generated one year later/u The First Lady, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, formally dedicated the dam on September 22, 1966. 2~ I J. Getcbes, supra note 10, at 417-19. The prior appropriation system is the docuine of law conuolling water rights in the West. Theconcept is fairly simple, "first in time, first in righl," meaning that anyone who puts water from a particularsourCl: to use has superior rights over anyone wholaler begins to use water from the same source. DAVID H: GETCHES, W ATEIl. LAw IN A NunHELL6 (2d ed. 1990). 12. MAft.TIN, supra note 7, at 27-29. 13. 45 Stat. 1057 (1928) (codified at 43 U.S.C. i 617 (1988)) (signed into law by Presidenl Calvin Coolidge in December, 1928). 14. MARTIN, supra note 7, at 27-29. 15. Id. at 29,40.41. 16. Id. at49-50. Recognitionoftheneed for upper basin storage was based on the accumulation of hydrologic evidence showing the annual flow of the Colorado al Lees Ferry to be only 14.2 maf per year, as opposed tothe 16 maf assumed in IheColorado River Compact. Thisdata madeil clear that if the upper basin was to consume the 7.5 maf allocated to il by the compact, il would not meet the obligation to deliver lhe requisite amount to the lower basin. GCES COhlMlTIEE,SUpra note 8. at 16. 11. MAIlTIN, supra note 7, at 49.50. 18. 43 U.S.C. i 620 (1988). 19. MARTIN, supra note 7, at 54. 20. See id. at 49-54. 21. See generally id. at 43-74. III. BACKGROUND-\-DAM OPERATIONS The 1922 Compact, the CRSP A, and the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act (CRBPA) dictate operations at Glen Canyon Dam, The CRSPA stated that the authorized projects were: . for the purposes, among others, of regulating the flow of the Colorado River, storing water for beneficial consumptive use, making it possible for the States of the Upper Basin to utilize, consistently with the provisions of the Colorado River Compact, the apportionments made to and among them in the Colorado River Compact and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, respectively, providing for the reclamation of arid and semiarid land. for the control of floods, and for the generation of hydroelectric power, as an incident of the foregoing purposes. M The CRBP A added to this list of goals: This program is declared to be for the purposes, among others, of regulating the flow of the Colorado River; controlling floods; improving navigation; providing for the storage and delivery of the waters of the Colorado River for .reclamation of lands, including supplemental water supplies, and for municipal, indus- trial, and other beneficial purposes; improving water quality; providing for basic public outdoor recreation facilities; improv~ ingconditions for fish and wildlife, and the generation and sale of electrical power as an incident of the foregoing purposes.ll7 Ttie"CRBPA!s'more specific mandate takes precedence' over the 'broader / > 22. 43 US.C. I 620. 23. STAN JONES, GLEN CANYON DAM AND STEEL-ARCH Bft.IDGE 23 (1984). 24. Id. 25. Id. 26. 43 U.S.C. i 620 (emphasis added). 27. 43 U.s.C. U 1501-1556 (1988) (emphasis added). The CRBPA authorized, among other things, the 'massive Central Arizona Water Project and created the lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund. "I , , " '.