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<br />In Montana, it's
<br />shoot-for-pay hunting / page 4
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<br />~Nevys
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<br />
<br />VoL 2!JNo. 21 A PaP-for People who Cd"" abouttbe West One dollnra"dflflJ' eMta
<br />
<br />NOVfmIfnr 10. 1997
<br />
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<br />
<br />Drain Lake Powell?
<br />
<br />Democracy and science finally come West
<br />
<br />
<br />The proposal to drain Lake Powell is exhil-
<br />. arating. Not because it is necessarily a
<br />good idea. That remains to be seen. The
<br />proposal is exhilarating because lt means
<br />democracy and science, inseparable twins when
<br />it comes to natural resource issues, have pene-
<br />trated the West.
<br />The proposal is also evidence that David
<br />Brower's dismal dictum - that all enviroiimen-
<br />tal victories are temporary and all defeats per-
<br />manent - need not be true. If the destruction
<br />of Glen Canyon by Lake Powell isn't perma-
<br />nent, then almost nothing is permanent.
<br />Glen. Canyon Dam was llutborized and built a
<br />decade before the National Environmental Policy
<br />Act and the Endangered Species Act. Because of
<br />the lack of laws, because of the poJitics of the
<br />laterior West, and becaue tbe.w.n.J pvem_
<br />ment had more money than God, dams were
<br />thrown across an enormous number of streams in
<br />the West, whether or not they made economic or
<br />ecological or even common sense.
<br />Those dams are a monument to the region's
<br />political leadership in the 1950s and 19608,
<br />when men lib former Colorado Rep. Wayne
<br />Aspinall. D, and his allies ruled the West like
<br />
<br />By Ed Marston
<br />
<br />a theocracy. In their righteousness, they built
<br />dams, they tested nuclear weapons, tf1ey roaded
<br />and clear-cut the forests, and they generally
<br />ran the region in a thoughtless and destructive
<br />way.
<br />The national and then regional rel.'lction to
<br />what they did first made it impossible to build
<br />additional dams in the West. And now we are
<br />coming full circle, by beginning to decide, on a
<br />case..by-case basis, whether the dams they built
<br />should remain standing. The examination of
<br />Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell is especial-
<br />ly exciting because, at Lake Powell, we are not
<br />just subjecting a dam to the light of cum!nt val-
<br />ues, but ant also showing how the West might
<br />be governed.
<br />Thl.t puts a heavy burden on the eJ1viron-
<br />.' JIleD.tal.mcmtalent..7'he..ncent ~_
<br />hearing on draining Lake Powell,
<br />chaired by Utah Rep. Jim
<br />Hansen. R, was a throw-
<br />back to the 19508.
<br />The Weatern
<br />
<br />delegation acted 8S if it could blow away this
<br />idea, and offered no intelligent or const.ructive
<br />critique. The hearing showed that iftherc is III
<br />be a thoughtful weighing of the drain-Lake
<br />Powell proposal, it will have to come from with-
<br />in the environml'ntal movement. For the
<br />moment, at IC:l.~l. environmentalists must pre-
<br />sent all sides of the debate, and must be senlii.
<br />tive to the values of everyone who has fln inter-
<br />est in the lake and the dam. If the movement
<br />can't do that, it risks committing the same kind
<br />of narrow-minded, recklCRS acts that the 1950l'l-
<br />era politicians committed.
<br />As a start toward such a debate. High
<br />Country News otTers a lengthy essay by George
<br />Sibley on the 1922 Colorado River Compact and
<br />its manifestation in concrete - Glen Canyon
<br />-.Dam. Sibley,. writer in Gunnieon, Colo.,
<br />argues that there is m()!"e to Glen CI>nynn
<br />Dam than its impacts on Grand Canyon and
<br />the Sea. of Cortez.
<br />Also in this iuue, assistant editor Greg
<br />Hanscom describes the people who brought the
<br />drain-Lake POWf!lIeffort to life.
<br />The stories begin on page 8.
<br />
<br />IN lIE BEGINNING: A crane lowers a buRdozer into Glen Canyon at the start of construct1on, 1958 (Bureau of Reclamation photo)
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