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. Page 5 WRW washn x x x committee BUjREC RELEASES DRAFT EIS ON OPERATION OF GLEN CANYON DAM Washington--Recreationists and environmentalists are "in" and old- line water users and power users are "out" at the Bureau of Reclamation (BujRec). Reclamation Commissioner Daniel P. Beard on Jan. 6 lined up representatives of recreation and environmental organizations and sever- al government agencies to applaud his release of the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on operating Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado Riv- er with the goal to protect Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. "In the old days these documents were developed behind closed doors with water lawyers, engineers and irrigation district representatives. Now we are throwing the doors wide open and including community leaders, Native Americans, the recreation industry, environmentalists, and many others. I look forward to reviewing the public comments as we move toward finalizing" the EIS on Glen Canyon's operations, Beard stated. BujRec will hold open house to provide information on the draft EIS in the Washington area on Jan. 27; in Salt Lake City on Feb. 11; in Phoenix on Feb. 16; and in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Feb. 17. BujRec will hold public hear ings in Los Angeles on March 7; in San Francisco on March 8; in Phoenix on March 14; in Flagstaff on March 15; in Salt Lake City on March 17; in Denver on March 21, and two hearings in the Wash- ington area on March 24, the first on Capitol Hill and the second in Ar- lington, Va. Many comments are expected. Call the BujRec office in your area for details. The final EIS has to be completed by the end of the year by law. Despite Beard's provision for many public meetings and hearings on the draft EIS, the final EIS is expected to be very close to the draft proposal because of the complexity of the issue. Operations of Glen Canyon dam will not be changed much from the interim operations that have been in effect during the past two years and will continue to be in effect until the final EIS is completed and implemented. Under the preferred alternative that Beard chose to oper- ate the dam, the maximum releases of water from Lake Powell to generate hydropower at the dam would be limited to 20,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). Minimum releases would be 8,000 cfs during the day and 5,000 cfs at night. The hourly ramp rates would be limited to 2,500 cfs in in- creases and 1,500 cfs in decreases. The ramp rate is the rate of change in river flows up and down as power demand fluctates. The dam will no longer be able to generate at its full capacity of about 31,000 cubic cfs dur ing per iods of peak demand. Generation at full capacity for peaking power has not taken place for two years. The BujRec put its current interim flow regime into effect at the dam on Nov. 1, 1991, after environmental groups objected to wide swings in the flows which, they claimed, were causing beach erosion, loss of vegetation and of fish and wildlife habitat, and adversely affecting cultural values. The maximum fluctation in the river will be three feet under the preferred alternative. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) wanted steady flows in the Colorado River to offer more protection for humpback chub, an endangered fish that lives in the Grand Canyon. USFWS threatened to file a jeopardy opinion under the Endangered Species Act. A compromise was worked out whereby a monitoring program will be put into effect for from 5-10 years to determine how the fish survives under the proposed regime. USFWS did not send a representative to the BujRec press conference and did not comment on the proposal. America Outdoors, American Rivers, Grand Canyon Trust and the Environmental Defense Fund backed the BujRec proposal. (More later on this on receipt of the EIS.) -HCM-WRW-30-