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<br />The Denver Post Online
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<br />* 254: - May Vary outside metro OeI\'Iet
<br />
<br />Audacious plan to drain
<br />Lake Powell arouses foes
<br />
<br />By Jame. Brooke
<br />The New York Times
<br />PAGE, Ariz. - To Sierra Club
<br />directors, their proposal to drain
<br />Lake Powell, the United States'
<br />second-largest artificial lake, Is
<br />breathtaking in its boldness.
<br />. To .resldents and recreationlsts,
<br />the. Idea of destroying the nation's
<br />second-mast-popular camping area
<br />is breathtaking in Its arrogance.
<br />"I tend to vote green, but this
<br />makes. tbem look like absolute
<br />fools," Tony Randan, a Flagstaff.
<br />resident, said as he and his wife
<br />. prepared their motor boat for a
<br />
<br />four-day fishing and camping trip
<br />among the lake's redrock canyons.
<br />Referring to the Sierra Club, he
<br />said, "If you support something lu-
<br />dicrous, it undermines your clOdi-
<br />bllity."
<br />Page, a prosperous town of 8,200
<br />people, was built in 19&7 by work-
<br />ers who created the Glen Canyon
<br />dam and with it Lake Powell.
<br />People here seem to be univer-
<br />sally opposed to draining the Jake
<br />and recovering the canyon. And
<br />with congressional hearings on the
<br />plan set to hegln Tuesday, the line-
<br />up of. forces would seem to be in
<br />
<br />their favor.
<br />Four million electricity users,
<br />2.& million recreationists, a $500
<br />mUllon tourist economy, volumes
<br />of regional water compacts, and
<br />the Navajo nation are Hned up
<br />against two environmental groups
<br />and a few species of fish.
<br />"But the environmentalists
<br />closed down the forest industry to
<br />save the spotted owl," warned Ver-
<br />na Stoddard, who runs the Lake
<br />Powell Yacht Club. "They are pret-
<br />ty powerful people."
<br />. The environmentalists say the
<br />lake is wasting water tbrough
<br />
<br />I
<br />evaporation, covering a beautiful
<br />red rock canyon and irreversibly
<br />changing the ecosystem of the
<br />Grand Canyon.
<br />People opposed 10 lhe plan say
<br />Page needs the lake to survive and
<br />that after so many yeats, lhe can-
<br />yon has been lost forever.
<br />Four decades ago, engineers
<br />huilt a massive convex dam here,
<br />blocking the Colorado River at a
<br />narrow gorge of Navajo sandstone.
<br />Swelling to nearly the size of
<br />Lake Mead, the nation's largesfar-
<br />
<br />Please see LAKE POWELL on 14A
<br />
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