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Hlgb Country News -Augusf.14, 1989-7 Glen Canyon Dam takes aim at the Grand Canyon Rafting the Grand Canyon is exhila. rating but it also has its unpleasant sur.' poses. Boaters may fall asleep at night only (0 wake up 10 find their rafts strand. ed 10 fcet above the river. The culprit is the Glen Canyon Dam above, which generates electricity for the entire western grid of the country, except for Texas. Since hydroelectric power, unlike coal or other sources of electricity, can be almost instantly turned on and off, it is especially valuable in a system forced 10 adjust 10 changing demands. The result is thai as the dam pro- vides peaking pOwer, the Colorado River fluctuates in turn, with the highes! releases corresponding to pcak-demand peciods and top revenues. The Bureau of Reclamation is responsible for the water, and the West- ern Area Power Admini.~lration calls the shots on power. Water is measured in cubic-feet per second flowing paSI a giv- en point, and releases this smnmer com- monly plunged from W,OOO cubic-feet per second to 3,000 efs within a 24-hour period. Before Glen Canyon closed its gates in 1963, the Colorado River moved an average of 500,000 tons of silt and sand each day past the gauging station at Phantom Ranch. In flood stage, when "llfters would say the river was really -ronking, the river carried as much as 55 million IOns of sediment a day. Although beach erosion occurred before the dam, beaches wece constantly fonning as welL Sediment now settles at the upper end of Lake Power. Waters once warm and brown now flow cold and clear -'lfiroiigh.lhc"Grand Canyon. "Hungry water," is what it's called. Dick McCallum, whO owns and operates Expeditions Inc., a commercial river company in Flagstaff, Ariz., first ran the river in 1957. ''Then, there was about three times lIS much beach sand in tile river corridor as we have lOday, he says."People used to be really impressed with the quality of it. It was exceptionally fine, not like seashore sand at all. But a good two- thirds of those beaches are gone." McCaUum remembers beaches big- ger than football fields and islands of driftwood so huge boatmen would set them on fue just 10 get rid of them. Now driftwood j's a rare and pre- cious commodity, and beaches aren't far behind. The dam has had its benefits. With the clear, controlled water came new kinds of fish, notably trout, and a new shoreline environment Vegetation such lIS tamarisk and willow, which were rou- tinely scoured by spring floods before the dam, suddenly gained a foothold. The vegetation helped stabilize many beaches and provided new habitat for a wide variety of animals. The cold water, drawn from the bot~ tom of the lake, acts as an air conditioner that makes boating more enjoyable. "BefCl"e the dam it was like a blast furnace down there," McCallum says. "I can remember whole trips sitting in !he river at night while (clients) ate their din- ner." The beaches are still disappearing, though, and fluctuating flows seem to ~speed meir destruction. Another problem 1. is loss of critical breeding habitat for an ?- endangered species. the hump-backed hub. To study the problem. the Bureau of Reclamation funded environmental swd- ies. 'They began in 1983, and six years later Grand Canyon Environmental Swd- - Eroding beaches In the Grand Canyon ies II began 10 develop solutions to prob- lems identified by the first study. But back in 1983, just as Lake Pow- ell was finally filled, a 200 percent snow pack lay on the Colorado Rockies. Then came a cold spring without much runoff followed by a sudden thaw. That summcr BuRec was forced to unleash more than 90,000 cfs through Grand Canyon: That flood drastically changed the ballll1ceand StnlClurC-ofscdiments along the river, and the subsequent return to strongly fluctuating flows has accelerat- ed the loss of beaches. The loss isn't the kind of thing that leaps out at someone seeing the river for the first or second time. But those who have known the canyon the longest - guides and outfitters with IS, 20 and even 30 years of experience-are the ones most concerned about the rale of change they sce today. The first series of Grand Canyon Environmental studies suggests thai a state of dyn<lJllic equilibrium had almost been reached in the bollam of the chan- nel in the early 19805. That equilibrium was wiped out by the floods of 1983. If the flood hadn't happened, according to ~his theory, beach erosion would have slowed significantly. If tbe dynamic equilibrium observed in the early 19808 is real, how long will it take to reach that state again? Mean- while, what can be done to slow erosion? Dave Wegner of the Burea'u of Reclamation, wbo heads the GCES, says the rate of fluctuation seems to be the most critical factor for the beaches. "While the lows are aggravating for boaters," he adds, "it's clear that the highs, particularly, can be detrimental to the beaches." Although most river guides suppon~ ed the work of Wegner and his team sludying the river, mey also grew impa. ticnt as years passed and nothing changed. This spring they began a letter cam. paign to federal agencies and wtore 'joined in the campaign by groups such as the Grand Canyon Trust, Friends of the River and Western River Guides. "I understand people's concern for, the canyon," says Dick White, who man- ages the dam (or the Bureau of Reclama. tion. "I go down the river every year myself, and Uove the place, too. People need to realize, Ihough, that anything we talk about which affectS Glen Canyon will affect the entire Colorado River Storage Project," which includes all dams on 1,000 miles of the Colorado River. White adds: "When people wm on the switch, they want the tights." Kenton Grua, president of Ihe 200- memb~.Grand Canyon River.Guides, agrees that running the dam is complex because of different interests. But, he asks, how do you quantify the meaning of a magnificent place like the Grand Canyon? "Poople in aU those cities need a place like this, too, he says ... and the way we're going, in 20 years or so they're going to really need a place like this." Dave Marcus, an energy consultant working for the Grand Canyon Trust, saystherealissueisn'tphysical,it'scco-- nomic. He says turning off Glen Canyon Dam as a peaking power facility would cost power-users more "but not very much more," according 10 a cursory WAPA swdy. When it comes to the subject of who should pay, Grua is passionate. "The dam owes Ihe canyon," he says. "We gave up Glen Canyon for that dam, and the peOple using its power have enjoyed rates far below the market place for 25 years already. It won't hon them now to start paying their share." In a new development July 'n, Inte- rior Sccretary Manuel Lujan directed the Bureau of Reclamation to begin an envi- ronmental impact statement on the oper- ations of Glen Canyon Dam. For more information about the EIS process, write Roland Robison, Regional Director. Bureau of Reclamation, Uppct" Colorado Region, Box 11568, Salt Lake City, Uf 84 147. Grand Canyon River Guides can be reached al Box 1934, Flagstaff, AZ 86002 (602/774-1526). -lLwSfeiger Lew Steiger lives in Prescott, Ariz., and is a river guide with many years of experience on the Colorado River. HOTLINE Desert under siege A- recent study concludes that Cali- fornia's desert environment is in peril and that poor management is the cause. But newly appoirited Bureau of Land Management chief Cy Jamison says he opposes a bill to protect miUions of acres of California desen. The study, by me General Accounting Office, the inves- tigative arin of Congress, charges the BLM is biased against wildlife. "Wildlife objectives.... have been adversely. affected by land-use decisions that favor such competing uses as off- 'highway vehicles, grazing and mining," the. GAD says. The study was made at the :requeSt of Sen. Alan Cranston, D- Calif., who.bas introduced a bill to pro-- teet millions of acres of desert: by creat- ing t1uee national p~. The bill's sup- porters say the parks are necessary to protect the desert's fragile environment from overuse and poor management. Opponents describe the proposal as "lockout legislation" thai would unfairly close the desert to the military, miners, ranchers, off-road vehicle users, and oth- ers, reports the Los Angeles Times. Sheer grit A 29-year-old man whooe legs have been paralyzed since 1982 hauled him- self up the sheer granite wa!1s of one of America's toughest climbs. Using only his arms, Mark Wellman, a Yosemite National Park employee, completed the climb up the park's 3,200 foot El Capi- tan after nine days and some.7 ,000 pullups. "It's great, it's fantastic," he said after reaching the top. Wellman and friend Mike Corbett, who carried sup- plies and set the ropes used for the effort, bauled 9()..degree heat and wind gusts that blew the climbers 10 feet out from the mountain face, reports the Denver Post. "No one in my situation has ever done anything like !his, and that I'm proud of," he said. "I feel like the whole world was watching." Wellman trained daily for six months for the climb, lifting weights and making 35 practice climbs on sheer rocks.