| I had come to know
Floyd Dominy in October of 1995 when I invited him to Salt Lake City to
debate David Brower at the first annual conference of the Glen Canyon
Institute. I had kept up my association with him, and in 1997 had occasion
to go to Virginia. So I called him up, and he invited Eleanor Inksip and
me out to dinner.
We met at his house in the afternoon. On his several acre
property were over one dozen dams; he is a beaver to be sure. In a large
room in the basement of his home, a fire was burning on this cold day.
On the walls were mementos of his days at the Bureau of Reclamation. A
huge painting of Hoover Dam was on the wall behind his desk, along with
other photos of dams.
I had several reasons to see him that day; one was to collect
some bookends for David Brower. Some years earlier, Dominy and Brower
floated down the Grand Canyon for John McPhee’s book, Encounters with
the Archdruid. As a token of their experiences together, Dominy had promised
to give Brower some bookends that were made from core sample drillings
of Glen Canyon Dam. Now 30 years later, Brower asked me to collect them
from Dominy. When I reminded Mr. Dominy about them, he said that he had
"changed his mind." He did offer, however, to let me take photos
of them for Brower.
Well, that was the best I could do, so I agreed. We set
the bookends up on his desk with Dominy posing behind them. As I prepared
to take the photo, Dominy said, "Wait, I want to put a book in between
them!" He walked over to his book case, giggling all the while, and
brought back the pamphlet he wrote called, Lake Powell, Jewel of the Colorado.
He placed his pamphlet in between the concrete drillings from the dam,
and I took the photo of Dominy, who was still laughing.
Dominy, Eleanor, and I went to dinner in Boyce. Not long
after we sat down he asked how serious was the movement to drain Lake
Powell. I told him that it was very serious. He just stared ahead for
a moment and then said, "Well, I am sorry about the destruction to
the Grand Canyon. Is it so bad to have a trout stream down there, anyway?"
Eleanor replied, "Yes, Mr. Dominy, it is."
Dominy countered, "Well, if you keep putting foods
down there you will ruin everything. Clear water is hungry water and those
floods will eat the Grand Canyon away."
Then he offered something startling. "Brower has proposed
to drill out the original bypass tunnels to drain the reservoir. Well,
you can’t do that. It is 300 feet of reinforced concrete." He lowered
his glasses on his nose and continued, "There is a better way. All
you have to do is drill new bypass tunnels around the old ones in the
sandstone; then you can put waterproof valves at the bottom of the lake.
They can be raised and lowered as you need, to let water out."
With that he pulled over a cocktail napkin and drew a sketch
of Glen Canyon Dam, the old bypass tunnels, the lake, the river, and the
new tunnels with the waterproof valves that will be used to drain the
reservoir. His hands worked busily as he explained what he was sketching.
He concluded, "This has never been done before, but I have been thinking
about it, and it will work."
I must admit I was a little stunned. First I was fascinated
at how draining such a large reservoir could be accomplished, because
it seemed so simple. But to think that it was Floyd Dominy who had just
sketched the plan was beyond belief. The man who built the dam, the man
who called lake Powell his own, had actually sketched for Eleanor and
me the method to drain his reservoir.
I said, "Mr. Dominy, no one will believe me when I
tell them that you drew this. Would you sign and date it?"
He answered, "Sure I will," and signed the napkin,
which I keep in a safe and special place. |
