WSP08132 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Gkll CtulytJlI continued from page 1 for Glen Canyon Dam which will pro- tect the downstream resowces in the Grand Canyon, Environmental Impact State. ment Ordered Thanks to efforts of many people from many organizations, we can re- port a measure of progress toward achieving those objectives. On lu1y 27, SecreIary of the Interior Manuel Grand Canyon Trust Board of Directors lames Trees, Chainnan Edward M, Norton, lr., President Bruce Babbitt Anne K. Bingaman Harriet Hunt Burgess Bert Fingerhut David GelChes 10hn Leshy Chase Peterson Sally Ranney 10hn Schaefer William B. Smart Stewart Udall Headquarters Office The Homestead Route 4, Box 718 F1agslaff, AZ 86001 602-774-7488 Waskington Office 1400 16!h Street NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 202.797-5429 Lujan announced that he would direct !he Bureau of Reclamation to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement to detennine "the impact of operations of the Glen Canyon Dam on the down- stream ecological and Environmental Resources wi!hin !he Grand Canyon National Park and !he Glen Canyon National Recreation Area," A week earlier, Senator Bill Bradley, Chair- man of the Senate Waler and Power Subcommillee announced that he wooId hold field oversight hearings this fall on the impacts of Glen Canyon Dam operations on downstream resources, Trial Date Set A lawsuit filed in December 1988 by the Grand Canyon Trust, !he Na- tional Wildlife Federation, and the Western River Guides Association against the Western Area Power Ad- ministration (W AP A), the federal agency of the Department of Energy which markets electricity generated at Glen Canyon Dam, has moved forward toward a timely decision, Our lawsuit claims that W APA must evaluate the environmental impacts of !he agency's marketing criteria for hydroelecb'ic power generated at Glen Canyon Dam and o!her dams in the CoIOllldo River Storage Project and sold by W APA un. der long term contracts to public power customers. These c:cntracts, lhe amount of power, and the time the power must be delivered determine directly on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis the amount of water released from Glen Canyon Dam and the downstream impacts, The Federal Disttict Court in Salt Lake City has scheduled a trial for September 25, 1989, SecreIary of the Interior Lujan's decision to prepare an Environmental hnpact SIaII:meIJt OIl Glen Canyon Dam operations, Senator Bradley's decision to hold oversight hearings, and the prospect of a timely court decision on power marketing criteria all represent positive first steps in our campaign to protect the environmental and recrea- tional resources of the ColOllldo River in the Grand Canyon, These initial successesresult from strong leadership -6- Special Thanks to Grand Canyon Outfitters The Grand Canyon Trust wishes to acknowledge the contributions of the jiJUowing professioMJ river com- panies 10 our work on Glen Canyon Dam operations: AriZOIlQ Raft Adventures (AzRA); ArizollQRiver RlUI1U!rs; Canyon&:- plorations; Diamond River Adven- tures;GrandCanyonDories; OARS; Outdoors Unlimited; Sleight Expe- ditions; Sobec Expeditions, Inc. in Congress from Senators McCain, DeConcini, and Bradley, from infooned action by members of the Grand Can- yon Trust and other environmental or- ganizations and pofessional Ii_ guides who wrote to and contacted members of Congress, from the co-operative ef- forts and shared use of human and fi. nancial resoun:es by a number of envi- ronmental organizations at the local and national level, and from excellent media coverage of the issue, We know what works, and we should take those lessons into the next stage of the cam- paign. The Next Step The really critical stages of our campaign to protect the Cokndo Ri_ in the Grand Canyon lie ahead, The National Environmental Policy Act and an Environmental hnpact Statement only establish a process - in our view the best process - for making important decisions on how Glen Canyon Dam should be operated. However, the Sec- JllIary of the Interior's decision to pre- pare an Environmental hnpact State- ment does not in any way ensure that the downstream resources in the Grand Canyon will be protected. Indeed, the fundamental ob- stacle to protecting the resowces of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon for the past decade has been the )IIll- vailing policy at the Department of the Interior and the DeparUnentofEnergy,