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V Nature demands her share "There are so many holes in the system right now," he said. "Instead of slapping on a Band -Aid, let's start fresh. If this drought, this climate change, gets worse, it doesn't matter how many reservoirs you have, there's not going to be enough water. And even if the lake recovers, the problems will remain." Page needs Powell In Page, there is no debate over the value of Lake Powell. Without the lake, there is no Page, which otherwise would sit on a plateau high above the Colorado River. News reports about the lake's low level upset business owners, who say the media have painted an unfairly bleak picture of Powell. "People who have not come here before or who come once a year are very happy with what they find," said Joan Nevills - Staveley, executive director of the Page -Lake Powell Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau. "This probably is the optimum lake level for camping. We don't want it to stay there," she quickly added, "but a lot of the canyons are now accessible that weren't before." It's not surprising to get the chamber outlook from the chamber boss, but Nevills - Staveley knows a bit about Lake Powell and the Colorado River. Her father was the first commercial river runner, taking tourists down the San Juan River and the Colorado from Mexican Hat, Utah, to Lees Ferry, beginning in 1938. N evil ls- Staveley herself helped start the first concession operations on the lake's upper arm, at Hite Marina, which has closed because of the drought. From her cramped corner of a narrow storefront office on Page's main drag, Nevills - Staveley tries to reassure people when they call that there's still ample water to boat and fish and that camping and hiking opportunities abound. She is Page's own encyclopedia at times: "How many motel rooms do we have ?" an office worker yells after picking up an incoming call. "Fifteen - hundred- and - one," Nevills - Staveley replies. She scoffs at the drain - the -lake crowd: "It's not a well- thought -out plan," she said. "Most of us thought it was funny, because it is. It's ludicrous. Then we saw they were serious, and there's been a lot of misinformation since then." When the idea was first floated, "people called and canceled houseboat rentals and river trips through the Grand Canyon," she said. "It was scary. The standard answer here is 'Yes, there is less water, but there is still over 400 feet at the dam.'" In 1997, a group of Page residents formed Friends of Lake Powell to help counter the anti -dam movement. Paul Ostapuk, an environmental scientist for Salt River Project in Page, said the groups behind the proposal don't have nearly the support they claim. He also suggests their focus on restoring Glen Canyon ignores the reality of the region. "The lake when it was full only covered 13 percent of Glen Canyon," Ostapuk said. He pulls up a picture on his laptop computer, which he set up in the lobby of a hotel up the hill from the dam. "It isn't like there was nothing to see. But that's the picture that gets painted. The lake at half -full years ago was a spectacular place to come. The lake now is still a spectacular place." Managing nature Above Lake Powell, the Colorado River runs wild and muddy, just as it did when Maj. John Wesley Powell first explored it in 1869. Then, the river was unpredictable, its flow fluctuating wildly with the seasons. It stirred sediment, earning its name - Colorado, or red - colored - from the rusty tinge it took on after carving its way through Utah's canyon lands. Page 3 of 5 http:// www. azcentral .comispecialslspecia1061 articles /0722colorado- environment.html 7/27/2004