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Executtve Summary Principal Findings Impact Determinations Are Usable for Decision-Making In preparing the environmental impact statement, Reclamation used a variety of methodologies and data sources to study the impact of the various dam flow alternatives on hydropower, non-use values and other resources located below the dam, Generally, GAD found the methodologies used to be reasonable and appropriate, For example, the power analysis was conducted by a committee of specialists representing the federal government, the utility industry, private contractors, and the environmental community, This committee used utility-specific data and state-of-the-art simulation models to estimate the economic impact of the alternative dam flows on large regional utilities. In assessing Reclamation's implementation of the various methodologies, GAD did note several shortcomings and controversy over the methodology used to estimate non-use values, For example, in the hydropower analysis, Reclamation's assumptions do not explicitly include the mitigating effect of higher electricity prices on electricity demand (price elasticity). GAD also found that Reclamation's assumptions about future natural gas prices were relatively high and that two computational errors were made during the third phase of the power analysis. These limitations suggest that the estimated economic impacts for power are subject to uncertainty, However, Reclamation and many experts associated with the process do not believe that these limitations make the results of the analysis unusable, For example, an association that represents the affected power utilities, which has maintained throughout the power studies process that the impact statement understates the costs to the power system, does not believe that Reclamation's cost estimate is understated by a large magnitude, To quantify the impact of various dam flow alternatives on recreation and non-use value, Reclamation used a methodology called contingent valuation, The use of contingent valuation studies, which rely on surveys to elicit information from consumers to estimate how much they would be willing to pay for something is controversial. Although contingent valuation is currently the only known approach for estimating non-use values, some prominent economists question whether this methodology can accurately elicit the value consumers place on non-use goods, However, many economists and survey researchers working in the natural resource and environmental areas have developed and used this methodology. Although these shortcomings affect the estimates for the Page 6 GAOIRCED-97-12 Glen Canyon Dam's Environmentallmpact Statement