GLEN CANYON INSTITUTE
**ACTION ALERT**
November 27, 2007

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area proposes destructive excavation
to deepen Castle Rock Cut boat channel

Project Summary

On October 31, the National Park Service (NPS) announced that it is beginning an environmental assessment (EA) of the impacts of deepening the "Castle Rock Cut" in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA). The Castle Rock Cut is a manmade boat channel carved out of a sandstone cliff submerged beneath Lake Powell reservoir, just north of the Arizona border in Utah. It is a half-mile long, 80 foot wide short-cut through the Glen Canyon sandstone, that saves an hour of travel time for boaters traveling from Wahweap Marina to areas up-reservoir.

The Castle Rock Cut channel was originally excavated in the 1970s, before Lake Powell reservoir reached its maximum of 3,700 feet above sea level. In 1992, the NPS excavated 8 feet of built-up sediment from the channel, allowing it to be used when water levels are above 3,620 feet. However, since the late 1990s, the reservoir has been shrinking, due rising water use combined with the long-term effects of drought, evaporation, seepage, and global climate change. As a result, the Castle Rock Cut channel has not been usable since 2003. Today, the level of Lake Powell reservoir is only 3,600 feet and the channel is dry. This situation is not likely to reverse itself. In fact, hydrological models indicate that the reservoir will continue to shrink, remaining nearly empty most of the time during the next century.

Despite the decline of Lake Powell reservoir, boating interests have been pressuring the National Park Service to cut the Castle Rock Cut channel deeper. In response, the agency is proposing to deepen the channel another 15 feet, so it can be used when Lake Powell reservoir is at 3,600 feet. This would require using heavy equipment to excavate 250,000 cubic yards of sediment and sandstone — enough to fill 25,000 dump trucks — and spreading the rubble along the north side of the channel. The NPS has not announced an official budget, but the cost would clearly be significant.

Glen Canyon Institute's Position

Glen Canyon Institute strongly opposes the Castle Rock Cut deepening project, for the following reasons.

  • It is unnecessary. Boaters are still able to travel from Wahweap Marina to the north by making a slightly longer trip. Moreover, the number of boaters continues to decrease as the Lake Powell reservoir declines and the price of gasoline increases.
  • It is a short-term, unsustainable fix to satisfy jet skiers and motor boaters. As Lake Powell reservoir continues to decline, the channel will likely be unusable once again in the near future.
  • It would result in significant environmental damage by leaving massive piles of eroding tailings, degrading aquatic ecosystems, stirring up sediments, and requiring noisy, energy-intensive, and polluting heavy equipment and other industrial activities that emit carbon dioxide and increase global warming.
  • It would visually scar the natural landscape, permanently diminishing the area's scenic and recreational values.
  • It would divert funds and resources needed for proper management of the vast landscape that is emerging as Lake Powell reservoir recedes, including ecosystem restoration, public education and research, and supervising expanding recreation in the increasingly accessible backcountry.
  • It would divert funds and resources from other needed boating-related maintenance work, such as extending the boat ram
    • ps, moving the marinas to deeper water, and protecting the exposed areas along the shoreline from erosion.
  • It is contrary to the National Park Service's claims of providing environmentally sustainable management for GCNRA, and to the agency's congressional mandate to leave our parks "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

Glen Canyon Institute believes that this project is a perfect illustration of why Glen Canyon National Recreation Area must be upgraded from a lower-priority National Park System unit to a National Park — the highest classification in the System. Reauthorizing Glen Canyon as a National Park would: elevate the administrative mandate from providing motorboat recreation on the reservoir to ecological protection and sustainable recreation for all users, rather than just those who can afford motorboats, house boats and jet skis; provide resources for managing the growing recreational use of the emerging backcountry and canyon environments; help local communities shift to a sustainable economy less dependent on the shrinking Lake Powell reservoir; and attract increased public attention and agency resources to restore and protect Glen Canyon and the Colorado River.

What You Can Do

The National Park Service is now in the initial, or "public scoping" period of the review process. The goal is to identify possible alternative, issues, areas requiring additional study, and topics that will be analyzed in the environmental assessment. At this stage, the agency is seeking suggestions, comments, and statements of support for, or opposition to, the project. Once the full EA is developed, the document will be made available for public review and comment for a 30-day period.

Glen Canyon Institute urges you to speak out against this costly, destructive, and shortsighted project. We recommend supporting Alternative 1, the "No-Action Alternative," under which the proposed project would not take place and the Castle Rock Cut channel would not be further deepened.

All comments must be received by December 4, 2007. You can submit your comments:

  • by mail at:
    Castle Rock Cut EA
    Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
    P.O. Box 1507
    Page, AZ 86040
  • or on the National Park Service website.

Sample Letter

Click here to download a sample letter, to help you in writing your own letter. A few suggestions:

  • Make it clear that you oppose the proposed Castle Rock Cut project and support Alternative 1, the No-Action Alternative.
  • Feel free to add details and other points as appropriate, but try to keep the letter brief.
  • Personalize the letter if possible, telling about why protecting Glen Canyon and the Colorado River are important to you.
  • Make sure to mention if you have visited, or plan to visit, Glen Canyon NRA and why you are concerned about the impacts of the proposed project on the area. Any personal experience with the Castle Rock Cut is particularly useful.
  • Don't worry if you are not from Arizona or Utah; Glen Canyon NRA is federal land, owned by, and managed for, all Americans.

To read more about the proposal, go to the National Park Service "Deepen Castle Rock Cut" web page. If you have further questions, please call us at (801) 363-4450.