Environmentalists: Some Say Move Would Return Canyon to Way It Used to Be

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A6 TRIBUNE • x E n iro en TOWN Il!ELIES ON LAKE water source. Ingebretsen su nine Say n1OV Shared by Utah and Arizona, gents the toyvii could just get it. Lake Powell is the country's sec- water from the Colorado River ► ould return ond- largest manmade lake at But residents say it not liar ` more than 186 miles long. Its to predict what would happe shoreline of more than 2 to Page if environmentalists lr anyon to Way miles could= ,easily stretch along Ingebretsen have their way the entire "West Coast of the It would become, a ghos� .�s to be. contiguous Umted States town. Some 2.5 million visitors a "They have 'their dream,'anc - $OCIATED PRESS year come to fish, boat, sun- we live with the reality," Nevills bathe and explore canyons and Stavely said TICABOO, Utah — Richard alcoves. In the process, they DROUGHT TADS TOLL 9 ;ebretsen bounds out of the pump $400 million into Utah The movement to get rid of at with boyish enthusiasm, and Arizona. the dam and drain the lake has sneakers splashing through And it's those visitors who ' been around for years, but now mud puddles and his voice keep the city of Page runnin is getting more attention as the hoing off the imposing, red Page began as a town to drought continues to inch down gyon walls. house workers for nearby Glen the water level, now down "That was a waterfall right Canyon Dam. The dam, author- about 89 'feet. Last spring, the re" he says, eagerly pointing ized by Congress in 1956 and level dipped to its lowest since aaPgerock storing water by 1963, is the 1973, and the Bureau. of Recla The crackling water ahead dividing point of the Upper mation expects the water to Ikons him, and he pursues it Basin and Lower Basin of the continue dropping this summer.-: til he sees the - small resur- Colorado Riven Ingebretsen, president:'of the ted waterfall in a bend of the When the dam was created, Glen Canyon Institute' `J been nyon walla He grins; his so was Lake Powell, though i t against the dam. ever ' since ='he Atement barely contained.' would take 17 years to reach its , visited Lake Powell ' as a' Boy "The reason we want to drain full pool level of 3,700 feet Scout,. then ` returned' 10 years ke Powell is because of that;'' above sea level. Today, the dam later to see canyons overtaken wa 'says, gesturing . to the trickle provides power to 1.7 million : by water. ter. people in six states Arizona, An emergency roomn doctor It is known as the Cathedral Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Col- in Salt Lake City anil:a professor the Desert - cool -canygn orado : and New Mexico. After at the w mversity of Uta c h clito ol ils, a windy stream;' sedi leavin La g, ke Powell, ate r o . f Me& ine ; :lie f ount'" apt -filled puddles and delicate gushes ±:'through � ;the C ' institute in 1995, and has made alight peeking _through slots Canyon,to Lake Mead in'N- eva bus. ant Lake P.owetl views his ,,6 cliffs. For 25 years, of �s, da, where' it i`s dispersed to Aries, personal crusade , en ;under water, and to bona,; Ga Wriiia, Nevada ''and Ingebretsen argues, that the. en, its beauty is proof f ;zy e i lake is inefficient, losin g 1 mil- ll can return to its past, _. a m thI day, Joan ; lion acre -feet ;of mater . a year bore : .Glen Canyon Dam ':` IeviBsrBtavely unlocks :due to ':evaparatxon', and bank skipped the flow of the mighty ,.the . door" :'to the Page -Lake IN)" seepage; the gbivernxnent's est- orado River. it is Chamber of Commerce and mss^ mate iS ; a loss o € ,about. 825,OQ0 !#1nd splendid, this itors 'Bureau. Already, a ''fev act -fe'et a yearn Att aer`e foot i' b eathtaking glimpse of yester- tourists have peered in the dark about 326;QOQ`gallons . d y, hidden in a cove of the lake, 'e windows, looking for informs ' Th e' Bureau � of Reclamation a secret she guards. tion on the town and the.lake coulters that the lost water is ;The drought that has gripped It's a quiet town, full o €room just the cost of "doing business., the West for four years has and -pop businesses and long- "That's a 'nomssue," said sucked so much water out of Lake Powell that it is only a little time residents who enjoy living Barry Wirth, spokesman for. the . in i4ore than half full. A white Lake Powell's back yard in far bureau's Upper Colorado north - central Arizona. NevMs- 'Region. "All bodies of water on b thtub ring stains the canyon Stavely,. 66, the chamber's exec- the planet have evaporative rods, a reminder of just how l&w is. utive director, has been here- 27. losses:' the water ears, but city also attracts Ingebretsen claims that each I. ngebretsen, 47, relishes the 'e r f g, and considers it a motive ; young; the average • resi :day, the Colorado River dumps dent' age is only 35. 30,000 truckloads of sediment t ;lust go ahead and drain Lake At the, mention of Ingebi t into Lake Powell, something Iwell and decommission Glen s ' �L _� __ -„ ----- , yon Dam. He believes it would restore toe river to its natural state, and sos the,:dam isn't needed any - ,� Try telling that to the 6,800 residents of Page, Ariz.,. a tVrist- dependent town that city officials say would cease to exist if there was no lake. Folks there, and other lake supporters, sWIngebretsen is nuts. seal s name, ,Nev lls -M, 1y moans and rolls her eyes ' .: "'They say, `Wow, wouldn't it be fabulous if the darn wasn't there!' It's such a narrow: oaf look," she said. "You just can't pick up an idea or a dream like that and go full -steam ahead without regard to what the con - . sequences would be:' Page relies exclusively on the lake and dam for its water and power; the town has no other I Lake Powell, a 1988`study found `' that it would take more than 700 years for sediment to file" the reservoir, Wirth said "We know that that reser- voir is going to be .there for many hundreds of years, to