7287

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7287
• Author: Morris, R.
• Title: It Was a Dam Disaster
• USFW Year: n.d.
• USFW - Doc Type: In Its Wake, the Awesome Colorado River Flood of 1983 Left Troubling Questions about How the River Is Managed
• Copyright Material: YES

lished reports-suggests that in the
months prior to the 1983 flood, the
bureau chose to ignore its own and
other warnings of danger:
January 1983: Fishermen at Lake
Powell, behind Glen Canyon Dam, note
that the reservoir is nearly full. "I
watched the water levels climb to within
a couple of feet of the full water mark or
'bathtub ring' on the rocky cliffs," re-
ported Bob Thomas, outdoor editor of
The Arizona Republic.
March 1983: Heavy snowfall is re-
ported in the Rockies. Not only is the
water in Lake Powell high, but also in
Lake Mead, the reservoir located
downstream between Glen Canyon
Dam and Hoover Dam. Releases from
Glen Canyon are trimmed by a third,
from Hoover by two-thirds. The latter's
turbines continue to turn full-strength
to keep power production steady.
April 1983: Ski resorts reopen
throughout the Rockies. Colorado
River flooding begins in Utah.
May 1: National Weather Service
(NWS) officials, whose forecasts are
crucial to Colorado reservoir manage-
ment, adjust their prediction for spring
runoff from the mountains to more than
17 percent above normal. Releases of
water from Lake Mead are increased
only slightly.
May 17: The NWS issues another
upward revision of snowmelt predic-
tions, to nearly 20 percent above nor-
mal. Bureau releases go unchanged. At
Glen Canyon, officials prepare for the
dam's birthday party.
May 30: A heat wave hits the Rockies,
and spring snow melts in torrents.
Lakes Mead and Powell stand at 93 per-
cent of their capacity. Powell's flood-
storage margin (the empty space left in
the reservoir to accommodate flood wa-
ter) is less than two million acre-feet. An
acre-foot of water will flood an acre of
land to a depth of one foot. Over the
next month, the melt from the
mountains pours in at a rate of one mil-
lion acre-feet every five days.
June 1: The NWS again raises runoff
predictions, this time to 31 percent
above normal. Bureau of Reclamation
computers-and officials-finally reg-
ister the crisis. Releases from Powell are
doubled, those from Mead are also
raised substantially. The Colorado is
coming. Unfortunately, there is
nowhere to put it.
June 2: At a press conference, the
bureau formally announces its in-
creased releases. They will create, says a
spokesman, "lowland flooding prob-
lems all the way into Mexico." Yet a
bureau regional director assures report-
ers that "flood damage likely would be
limited to docks and recreational areas
along the river."
June 6: Operators at Glen Canyon
hear ominous rumbling noises and
watch in dismay as the dam's left spill-
way (opened three days before in an
attempt to ease the rapid rise of Lake
Powell) spews concrete and steel along
with a torrent of reservoir water. The
Colorado is chewing at one of Glen
Canyon Dam's safety valves, and begin-
ning to gnaw into the soft sandstone of
the canyon itself. Desperate bureau en-
"I do know enQ thing:
God didn't maNQ
this disastor.
Man did"
gineers erect plywood flashboards on
the spillway gate in an effort to channel
the discharge.
June 15.16: With Lake Powell still
rising, the river eats through sandstone
to within 200 feet of the dam abut-
ments. Downstream residents receive
their first official warning of "serious
flooding." Arizona counties along the
river declare a state of emergency;
civil-defense workers begin sandbag-
ging. With the plight of Glen Canyon
Dam still a federal secret, local officials
prepare for a four-foot rise in the river,
only a fraction of the coming flood.
June 17: Bureau officials make their
first public forecast of flood damage
from the river water being released from
overfilled reservoirs: $1 million, a hun-
dredth of the eventual toll.
June 18: Arizona Governor Bruce
Babbitt orders evacuation of river-front
counties.
June 20: At a press conference in Salt
Lake City, Roy Gear, a bureau regional
director, blames the flood on faulty
precipitation-and-runoff predictions.
He does not discuss details of flood-
storage levels, bureau power policy, or
what is happening at the Glen Canyon.
June 22: "We strongly recom:
that discharges from Glen Canyc
immediately raised to 70,000 cfs
feet per second) to protect the saf:
the structure," reads a memoranda
Robert Broadbent, chief of the B?
of Reclamation.
June 24: As the flood hits the Ar
riverfront, Governor Babbitt asks
ident Reagan to declare the regic
official disaster area. Meanu
generators at Hoover Dam hum a
bore. "We're not going to just wa:
this water,." declares a bureau off
June 27: Rain pounds the Ro
Releases from Lake Powell increz
80,000 cfs. On the left side of Gler
yon, the internal galleries that hou
dam's generators shudder and
under the force of the pounding
Dam operators must reduce the t
lence from the water back of the
before the internal turbines spin f
their axes. They increase the
through the damaged spillways-
only option-risking still more e:
of the canyon's sandstone walls. L
stream, wildlife refuges are flc
Riverfront is submerged beneath
ish water and sediment that wit
the character of the floodplain for
to come.
June 29: The flow into Lake i
peaks. Glen Canyon Dam will st:
Releases are reduced from a h:
92,000 cfs down to 87,000.
June 30: As damage estimates
in Arizona and California, the
rolls across the international b
leaving thousands of Mexicans
less. "They knew what they were
ing and what problems they
have," Secretary Watt says of floc
tims on the American side.
July 4: Power production peaks
Colorado dams. The Western
Power Administration scurries fc
tomers to buy the extra output.
July 20: The Interior and Insu:
fairs Committee of the U.S. He
Representatives announces it wi'
hearings on the flood. Represer
Morris Udall (D-Arizona) asks th.
eral Accounting Office (GAO) to
tigate the bureau's managem
flood-storage margins and da
leases. Thousands of people a:
homeless and jobless in the 1.
States and Mexico. Flood-damas
continues to climb toward $100 n-
The subsequent Congressional
and GAO study largely exonera:_
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