WSP08289 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

"If you want to restore the Grand Canyon ecosystem, removing the dam is .theonly . long-tenn solution. " - David Wegner A new generation rallies behind science and public process ... continued from preu;ow page more of Glen Canyon under water. It was heart-wrenching to watch, 58yJ Phil. "We would plan to go down for two weeks and aRer two or three days we would stop-talking, get depreased aDd go home... All un.xpeeled eaU Glen Canyon WBS given up for dead. For 17 years, the reservoir 810wly filled. sprawl- . ing blue.green through the desert. Sandstone pillars that once towered over the Glen now roee out oftha reservoir as islands. Half-drowned canyons hummed with motor. boats and cliff.jumping tourists. By 1995,2.5 million people were visiting Lake Powell each year, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, adding $455 million to the region's economy. Glen Canyon Dam, a $272 million, 10 millicm-Wn CW'Yed.waJl of 1llDftc:rete, ",u here to"stay. Each year, it generated roughly 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or 85 pen:ent of the Colorado River Storap Project, which powers dozens of small municipalities and cities like Provo, Utah, and Colorado Springs,. Colo. Many people never forgave the BuRec for Glen Canyon. In 1975, Edward Abbey wrote TIw MonMy WiYnch Gong, a noveJ that centered OD a plot to blow -up the dam. Earth Finrt! held proteats in the 19801. But for the most part., opposition went under with the canyon. "I didn't know there Wlls anybody elae out there who (c:ared),~ says Katie Lee. Then in 1996, her phone I'lIDg. A mild. mannered man introduced himself as Richard Ingebretaen, president of the Glen Canyw Inatitute.. "You're wAD''!'' said Katie Lee. Ingebretsen told her it was time to take another look at Glen Canyon, "I really want that dam out oBhe way; he told her. He wasn't talking about monkeywrenc:bing or eco-telTOriSrD, but a slow, itep-by"'8tep process baaed on science and public process. As Ingebretsen talk:ed, Katie Lee perked up."m be a blue-nosed baboon if this isn't' something different; she said. 'That call was the flrSt aihnmer of light at the end of an incredibl,. depnl8Sing tunnel.. Ingebret:sen, a Salt Lake City doctor and physics profelSOr, had visited Lake Powell u a Boy Scout in the 19608. What little be saw of Glen CanJOCl made a big impression, and later, runniDl rivers and exploring Utah's desert, one question nagged him: "'Why?" He ~ eveQ'tbiDg be eould find on' Western water law and Glen Canyon Dam, The dam, be discovered, is above all a politi. caI structure. Lake Powell serves 88 a sav. inp accouat for the upper Colorado River Basin states, allowing them to deliver 7.5 million acre-feet ofriver water to the Lower Buin eveD in dry yean, u mandated by the 1922 Colondo River Compact. It is also a dowry, amuing that the Upper Basin will have the water necesaary to develop and grow in its UWI1 pod time. But the eavinmmental costs of the dam are incredibly hish. The sediment that colon the Colorado red-brown is the river'! lifeblood, providiDl nutrients for everything from mieroorpnisms to fish. DETERMINED TO DRAIN: Dave Wegner and Richard Ingebretsen (Greg H8nscom photo) 10 - High Country News - November 10, 1997 I , '.-- -..., .. ,'-' I GEllING ClOSE: Partially fRied Lake Powell behi A.E. Tume,r) Now, more than 90 percent of that sedi. ment settles to the bottom of Lake Powell. The water that flows out of Glen Canyon dam is c:oId, clear and nutrient-starved. As a result, the river system downstream in the Grand Canyon is reeling; many native fish, amphibian and bird species are on the decline, while exotic plants such as tamarisk and non-native fish like trout, carp and cat- fish are taking over. . 1b make thinp wone, the sediment col. leding at the bottom of Lake Powell contains heavy metals like mercury and Relenium. As these metals build up, they can poiflon fish and birds. Motorboats add to the mf'SS by , dumping the equivalent of an F.xxon Valdez oil spill into the lake every four years, says Ingebretsen. The dam also stops noods that once maintained riverside benches where native plants and animals thrh'ed. Now, the BuRee controls the flows on a daily cycle based on demand for electricity, and th,e beaches are washing away. The more Ingebretsen rend, the more he believed there must be l'I better way. "I just started calling people," he says. "I dl'Cided to try and get everybody I had heard auout who had run Glen Canyon together." The response wu so cnCQUraginf,l' that in 1995,lngebretsen created the Glen Canyon Institute to teach people about the canyon and the dam. For the first me<!ting, he invited David Brower and Floyd Dominy to Salt Lake City to debate the merits of the dam; they argued as bitterly as tbey had 40 yean earlier. Last year, at the institute's second meet- ing, Ingebretsen sbowed Brower's films of Glen Canyon, which had been buried in the Sierra Club's basement for years. Two weeks later, Brower went to the Siena Club's board of directors and asked thE'm to support draining Lake Powell. The board voted over. whelmingly in favor of the proposal. ., .,'.