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PREFACE <br />In response to a 1986 request from the Department <br />of the Interior, the Water Science and Technology <br />Board (WSTB) of the National Research Council (NRC) <br />agreed to conduct a review of the Glen Canyon <br />Environmental Studies (GCES) of the lower Colorado <br />River for the Bureau of Reclamation and to provide <br />advice on alternative operation schemes for the <br />Glen Canyon Dam. <br />The WSTB was eager to conduct this review, in <br />part because it recognized that the Colorado River <br />is one of the most valuable water resources in the <br />United States. Without the development of this <br />water resource, the Colorado River basin and its <br />environs, which cover the southwestern eighth of <br />the United States, would be able to support only a <br />fraction of its present population. <br />John Wesley Powell recognized in his 1878 Lands <br />of the Arid Reg_iop of the United States report that <br />the river would be the sine cLua non of agriculture <br />in the region. Now we realize that the river's <br />energy generates electrical power, its water drives <br />political, economic, and legal philosophies, and <br />its flow and its work as a geomorphic agent provide <br />recreation and tourism in the Southwest. The <br />Colorado River epitomizes a regional water <br />resource. <br />ix <br />