Colorado River Project: River Report Summer 2003

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Colorado River Board of California. "Arizona, for a long time, has claimed it would like to implement shortage sharing, but California has resisted." "If some groups benefit from the surpluses and the other groups suffer during the shortages, it is going to be difficult to develop shortage criteria," said Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of CAP, referring to the recent cooperative effort by basin states to develop surplus criteria that would primarily benefit California. "The whole priority system in the Lower Basin is asinine," said Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the South- ern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), the primary water purveyor for the Las Vegas region. SNWA has reason to be concerned about the priority system during a drought since the 1968 Act could be interpreted to put Nevada's water supply at risk. Nevada did not begin to use its water supply in full until its serious growth spurt in the 1990s — potentially making its water rights secondary to Californias during shortage conditions. "I think the time is now to look at the priority system in the Lower Basin with a higher degree of rational thinking than existed back in the 1960s," Mulroy said. Besides determining which states would receive how big a cut, another critical factor to consider would be how far to draw down Lake Mead during shortage conditions. Conceivably, the lake could be drawn all the way down to 895 feet where no more water could be released from the dam and the reservoir would become what engineers call a "deadpool." Power generation from Hoover Dam would cease if the lake reached the 1,083 -foot level and Nevada's new "second straw" is at 1,000 feet. Should the lake level be drawn down below that, SNWAs water supply would be cut off. The Bureau's Harkins said that developing shortage criteria will likely mimic the time frame for the surplus criteria — about two years. - Continued from page 9 the Anasazi Indians) who occupied the Grand Canyon around 1050 A.D. (Some archeologists claim there were inhabit- ants in the canyon much earlier — as long as 10,000 years ago.) Their artifacts and archeological sites found (and continue to be found) throughout the canyon are their legacy. From the river near our campsite at Nankoweap Canyon, we gazed several hundred feet up a cliff side to four dark rectangles in the red rock wall. These are granaries where the Ancestral Puebloans stored the maize they grew along the floodplain of the Colorado River, the very place where our boats rested on the shore. Looking back on our journey, I realize we were not entirely unlike the Ancestral Puebloans, traveling in our nomadic group, each person with a responsibility on which others depended, be it maintaining a boat, cooking dinner, cleaning up trash, or providing a fireside joke. River runners are an interesting lot. Some are born into river running because their parents were river runners and they were handed, and accepted, that torch to carry. Others, in a previous life, were bankers, certified public accountants, or lawyers, and chose to start a new life the first time they ran a river. "That river water got in my blood," said Don Harris, one of those adventure - seeking souls who carved out a place in history when he and a group of others started running the Colorado River back in 1939, back when the river was more wild than it is now. I am sure that holds true for many who live their lives from atop the undulations of the Colorado. For modern -day river runners, I can only conclude that there must be an acceptance that takes place. I think most would love to run the river as it used to be, when it came booming down the canyon at 150,000 cubic - feet -per- second before Glen Canyon Dam was built. But by the same token, there is a whole industry dependent on the regulated flows of the Colorado. They have become accustomed to boating on the river all summer long, to gliding on its cool waters in their boats when in some years, without the dam in place, they would be able to walk across the river. The End of a Beginning Sometimes the Colorado River can be so frustrating. The web of problems that seem to constantly send stakeholders into the courtrooms to haggle over its water are, at times, relentless. Not even the deceptively leisurely activity of boating, that allows many to escape from the norms of daily life, is without conflict. As with all aspects of the river, we owe it to ourselves to learn about the issues surrounding the Colorado River in all its myriad forms — the white water industry not excluded. Like the prover- bial row of standing dominoes, one action impacts another action, and so on. To try and prevent all the dominoes from falling, it is important to under- stand the interconnect between those dominoes and possibly, prevent them from collapsing. Education is the catalyst that can bring about under- standing, and understanding, much of the time, is the first step towards resolution. After eight days on the river, I was dropped off at Phantom Ranch, the main access route between the river and both rims of the Grand Canyon. I said my goodbyes and began the hike out of the Grand Canyon via the Bright Angel Trail. In short order, the river left my view and the one -mile climb out of "The Big Ditch" slowly took its toll. When I finally reached the top five hours later, I looked out across the sweeping expanse of multicolored rock, and to the steep vertical walls that I knew plunged down to the cold waters of the Colorado. I realized that by finally experiencing the fluidity of those waters, my appreciation and comprehension of all that is the Colorado River is now that much greater. I vowed I would someday touch the river again. - SUMMER 2003 • RIVER REPORT • COLORADO RIVER PROJECT • 11