Glen Canyon Institute Newsletter!
September 5, 2003
Volume 2, no. 7
Greetings Glen Canyon Institute Members! The past few
weeks have been an exciting time for us. Last week Dan Beard, former
commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, decided to join our board of
trustees. This is a great addition for us. Dan’s background, fundraising
network, and expertise will be priceless to us in our ongoing campaign. You
will find at the bottom of this newsletter the press advisory regarding this
latest news.
In other exciting news, Powell Reservoir is currently
sitting at 3,604 ft above sea level. This is 96 ft. below normal. The water
levels are continuing to drop quickly. For the most recent water level data and
projections visit:
http://www.usbr.gov/uc/water/crsp/crsp_gc.txt
It seems as though Mother Nature is working to drain Powell
Reservoir on her own!
There are still a few spots available for our September 20th
concert with Paul Winter down at Cathedral in the Desert. I am making final
arrangements for the boat shuttle so please let me know as soon as possible if
you are interested in joining us!
We are still in the planning stages of our Fall Conference
on November 6th. We will be posting the schedule of events on the
website in the very near future. Please check back at
http://www.glencanyon.org
A big thanks goes out to all of you who have participated
in our raffle. We will not be drawing until October 1, so there is still time
if you haven’t sent in your tickets. The application form is online on our
homepage. We will send out the prizes in the mail after the drawing. Good
Luck!
For the River,
Megan Anderson
Outreach & Development Director
PRESS ADVISORY
September 3, 2003
For Immediate Release
FORMER BUREAU OF RECLAMATION COMISSIONER JOINS GLEN CANYON
INSTITUE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Former Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Daniel
Beard, has joined the Board of Trustees of the Glen Canyon Institute. This Salt
Lake City-based organization is working to restore a free-flowing Colorado River
through Glen and Grand Canyons by decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam.
From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Beard was Commissioner of the Bureau
of Reclamation under President Bill Clinton. Mr. Beard recently stepped down as
the Chief Operating Officer of the National Audubon Society in New York City,
where he served from 2000 to 2002.
According to Mr. Beard, "Restoring a free-flowing Colorado
River through Glen and Grand Canyons is a bold and exciting challenge. These
canyons are magical places that deserve to be restored. To do so, however, we
will have to fundamentally reexamine 150 years of Western water policy. The Glen
Canyon Institute is a great organization
to lead this effort, and I'm proud to help them."
Founded in 1995 by Dr. Richard Ingebretsen, the Glen Canyon
Institute has been working to convince the government of the need to study the
option of decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam. It has funded multiple studies
revealing the many negative impacts of the dam on water supply and the Grand
Canyon ecosystem. In 1997, David Wegner, the lead scientist for the Bureau of
Reclamation’s environmental impact studies of Glen Canyon Dam, joined the Glen
Canyon Institute’s Board of Trustees and began calling for the government to
conduct a comprehensive environmental impact study on the environmental and
economic impacts of the dam.
Glen Canyon Institute is currently working to build
grassroots support and educate the public about the nearly 1 million acre-feet
of water lost from Lake Powell reservoir annually, as well as the huge amount of
sediment that is filling up the reservoir, and the destruction of the Grand
Canyon ecosystem caused by the dam. For more information about Mr. Beard’s
appointment or Glen Canyon Institute, log on to:
www.glencanyon.org or call
(801) 363-4450.
Announcements:
FREE STUFF!!! – We are giving away the “Restore Glen Canyon” bumper
stickers with our old Flagstaff address. If you would like one of these
stickers please send a self addressed stamped envelope to :
Glen Canyon Institute
900 E. 450 S.
Salt Lake City, UT 84102
We will send as many as you request. Feel free to post
them in as many places as you wish!!!
Coalition to Rename Lake
Powell
Thanks to the work of the Coalition to Rename Lake Powell, just recently
Glen Canyon Institute was solicited by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names for a
recommendation regarding the change of Lake Powell’s name to Glen Canyon
Reservoir. We are going to submit a favorable recommendation and we are asking
that you do the same. Your voice is needed and this is the time to express your
opinion on the name change. Below you will find a recommendation template.
Simply paste this into an e-mail or a word document and send it to :
U.S. Board on
Geographic Names
U.S. Geological Survey
523 National
Center
Reston, VA
20192
Telephone:
(703) 648-4544
Fax: (703) 648-4549
E-Mail:
bgnexec@usgs.gov
The decision will be brought to the Board for a vote as
soon as they have completed the research they feel they need to make a
decision. So the time to act is now. According to our solicitation letter “the
most important criterion to the Board will be local, regional, and national
acceptance of the change”. These are small steps in helping people realize that
the reservoir is a creation of man and only short term.
Recommendation Template:
Attn: U.S. Board on Geographic Names
I am writing this in support of the proposal to officially
change the name of the reservoir in Arizona and Utah, currently named Lake
Powell, to Glen Canyon Reservoir. I believe this is a necessary
change due to the existence of another body of water within the Colorado River
system named Lake Powell, which was given that name prior to 1959. I also
believe it is necessary out of respect for the adventurer and river runner John
Wesley Powell. I can only imagine his un-acceptance of a reservoir named in his
honor. Please take this recommendation into consideration when you vote on this
issue. Thank you.
A concerned citizen,
(your name)
News Links:
1) On August 24th, two articles were published in the Arizona
Republic regarding the petition to re-name Lake Powell. Thanks to Nancy Jacques
for such a great article. In rebuttal, Glen Canyon Institute along with Great
Old Broads and Living Rivers has been classified as “Drain-It Radical
Environmentalists”. You can view these articles via the links below.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0824jacques0824.html
and
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0824ostapuk0824.html
2) Here is the Associated Press article that was published
all over the country. You can view it below as it was printed in the Ogden
Standard Examiner. “Lake Powell: Eyesore or Recreation Paradise?”. This story
is complete with quotes from President Richard Ingebretsen.
Lake Powell: Eyesore or recreation paradise?
By ANGIE WAGNER
The Associated Press
TICABOO -- Richard Ingebretsen bounds out of the boat with
boyish enthusiasm, his sneakers splashing through the mud puddles and his voice
echoing off the imposing red canyon walls.
"That was a waterfall right here," he says, eagerly
pointing to a large rock.
The crackling water ahead beckons him, and he pursues it
until he sees the small resurrected waterfall in a bend of the canyon wall. He
grins, his excitement barely contained.
"The reason we want to drain Lake Powell is because of
that," he says, gesturing to the trickle of water.
It is known as the Cathedral in the Desert - cool canyon
walls, a windy stream, sediment-filled puddles and delicate sunlight peeking
through slots in the cliffs. For 25 years, it"s been under water, and to
Ingebretsen, its beauty is proof Lake Powell can return to its past, before Glen
Canyon Dam stopped the flow of the mighty Colorado River.
And it is splendid, this breathtaking glimpse of yesterday,
hidden in a cove of the lake, like a secret she guards.
The drought that has gripped the West for four years has
sucked so much water out of Lake Powell that it is only a little more than half
full. A white bathtub ring stains the canyon rocks, a reminder of just how low
the water is.
Ingebretsen, 47, relishes the ring and considers it a
motive to just go ahead and drain Lake Powell and decommission Glen Canyon Dam.
He believes it would restore the river to its natural
state, and says the dam isn"t needed anyway.
A worried Page
Try telling that to the 6,800 residents of Page, Ariz., a
tourist-dependent town that city officials say would cease to exist if there was
no lake. Folks there, and other lake supporters, say Ingebretsen is nuts.
Shared by Utah and Arizona, Lake Powell is the country"s
second-largest manmade lake at more than 186 miles long. Its shoreline of more
than 2,000 miles could easily stretch along the entire West Coast of the
contiguous United States.
Some 2.5 million visitors a year come to fish, boat,
sunbathe and explore canyons and alcoves. In the process, they pump $400 million
into Utah and Arizona.
And it"s those visitors who keep the city of Page running.
Page began as a town to house workers for nearby Glen
Canyon Dam.
The dam, authorized by Congress in 1956 and storing water
by 1963, is the dividing point of the Upper Basin and Lower Basin of the
Colorado River.
When the dam was created, so was Lake Powell, though it
would take 17 years to reach its full pool level of 3,700 feet above sea level.
Today, the dam provides power to 1.7 million people in six states - Arizona,
Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. After leaving Lake Powell, water
gushes through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead in Nevada, where it is dispersed to
Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico.
Just past 8 a.m. this day, Joan Nevills-Stavely unlocks the
door to the Page-Lake Powell Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau. Already, a
few tourists have peered in the dark windows, looking for information on the
town and the lake. A few doors down, Doug Boston is overseeing paint mixing at
the True Value hardware store he owns with his two brothers.
Consequences
It"s a quiet town, full of mom-and-pop businesses and longtime residents who
enjoy living in Lake Powell"s back yard in far north-central Arizona.
Nevills-Stavely, 66, the chamber"s executive director, has
been here 27 years, but the city also attracts the young; the average resident"s
age is only 35.
"I love it here," Boston said. "It"s really the only place
I"ve known."
At the mention of Ingebretsen"s name, Nevills-Stavely moans
and rolls her eyes as she sits behind her desk in her turquoise necklace and
matching bracelet and ring.
"They say, "Wow, wouldn"t it be fabulous if the dam wasn"t
there!" It"s such a narrow outlook," she said. "You just can"t pick up an idea
or a dream like that and go full-steam ahead without regard to what the
consequences would be."
Page relies exclusively on the lake and dam for its water
and power; the town has no other water source. Ingebretsen suggests the town
could just get its water from the Colorado River.
But residents say it"s not hard to predict what would
happen to Page if environmentalists like Ingebretsen have their way.
It would become a ghost town.
"They have their dream, and we live with the reality,"
Nevills-Stavely said.
"Damn the dam"
The movement to get rid of the dam and drain the lake has been around for years,
but now is getting more attention as the drought continues to inch down the
water level, now down about 89 feet. Last spring, the level dipped to its lowest
since 1973, and the Bureau of Reclamation expects the water to continue dropping
this summer.
Ingebretsen, president of the Glen Canyon Institute, has
been against the dam ever since he visited Lake Powell as a Boy Scout, then
returned 10 years later to see canyons overtaken by water.
An emergency room doctor in Salt Lake City and a professor
at the University of Utah School of Medicine, he founded the institute in 1995
and has made his anti-Lake Powell views his personal crusade.
"It"s just my holy grail," he said, proudly wearing his
khaki "Damn Dam" hat as he rides in a boat over the choppy waters of Lake
Powell.
Ingebretsen argues that the lake is inefficient, losing 1
million acre-feet of water a year due to evaporation and bank seepage; the
government"s estimate is a loss of about 825,000 acre-feet a year. An acre-foot
is about 326,000 gallons.
All lakes evaporate
The Bureau of Reclamation counters that the lost water is just the cost of
doing business.
"That"s a nonissue," said Barry Wirth, spokesman for the
bureau"s Upper Colorado Region. "All bodies of water on the planet have evapor-
ative losses."
Ingebretsen claims that each day, the Colorado River dumps
30,000 truckloads of sediment into Lake Powell, something that will eventually
clog the dam so much that it will have to be decommis-
sioned.
While the government acknowledges sediment enters Lake
Powell, a 1988 study found that it would take more than 700 years for sediment
to fill the reservoir, Wirth said.
"We know that that reservoir is going to be there for many
hundreds of years to come," he said.
Ingebretsen"s group has raised $2 million, and he and some
of its 2,000 members spend time lobbying Western congressional delegations, and
taking their message to schools, Chambers of Com-
merce, civic groups and water users.
Other environmental groups support Ingebretsen, and agree
the dam never should have been built. The Sierra Club has given Ingebretsen's
group several thousand dollars, and occasionally, the two groups along with
another environmental group - Living Rivers - share resources and information.
"It's a matter of what was lost. It basically destroyed a
living river," said Bruce Hamilton, national conservation director for the
Sierra Club.
Environmentalists say the silt that covers the natural
canyon causes ecological damage downstream, sediment erodes beaches and changes
the natural habitat of the area and the dam has completely destroyed the quality
of the Colorado Delta.
"I don't know if you can hang all the issues of the
Colorado Delta on a dam that's hundreds and hundreds of miles away," Wirth
responded.
The Bureau of Reclamation doesn't dispute that sediment and
silt have caused damage, but the government is experi-
menting with water flows to reduce sediment build-up and rebuild beaches. It is
also working to disrupt spawning of trout to reduce the number of fish and
increase the quality for better fishing. And the government is trying to save
the endangered humpback chub by reducing the competition: trout.
Differing views
Wouldn't it be wonderful, Ingebretsen said, to see Glen Canyon restored and
returned to its past, when the Colorado River flowed freely and visitors could
see Indian ruins, bridges and canyons? Already, the drought is uncovering the
tops of bridges that haven't been seen for years, he said.
Steve Ward doesn't buy any of that talk.
"That's a complete falsehood," he said, sitting at an
umbrella table at the Wahweap Marina in Page. "There's no significant arches
being exposed. There are no Indian ruins remaining."
Ward is just as passionate as Ingebretsen, but he wants to
save Lake Powell, and as the president of Friends of Lake Powell, he works to
counter the environmentalists.
Power-ful argument
Ward argues that Glen Canyon would never return to the way it once was. And, he
said, taking away the dam would also take away the Navajo Generating Station,
which provides power to four states - Arizona, Nevada, California and Colorado -
and is the largest employer in Page.
Page has the government on its side. Bureau of Reclamation
Commissioner John W. Keys has said the government has no plans to study
decommissioning the dam and draining Lake Powell. He bluntly dismisses the idea,
declaring: "That"s never going to happen."
Congress would have to approve decommissioning, but with
Republicans in control, even the environmental groups admit the chance of
Congress studying the issue is slim. They have struggled to find political
leaders in favor of the plan.
In 1997, at a hearing before two House subcommittees,
representatives of Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Colorado testified against the
plan. That was the only hearing ever held on the issue. The governors of
Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California either oppose or ignore the effort.
Water needs?
Robert Glennon, a law professor specializing in water policy at the University
of Arizona, doubts decommissioning will ever happen.
"If the states are united in opposition to this, it's hard
to believe (Interior) Secretary (Gale) Norton is going to push it," he said.
Wirth said Lake Powell is doing what it was designed to do:
provide the water supply for delivery to the Lower Basin.
"You've got 33 million or so people in seven states
depending entirely or in part on the Colorado River. You've got to have water in
storage to accommodate that," he said. "It's a critically important facility."
Ingebretsen claims Hoover Dam could take up the slack if
Glen Canyon Dam was decommissioned, but Colleen Dwyer, spokeswoman for the
Bureau of Reclamation in Boulder City, Nev., said that isn't possible.
"I think people like to simplify situations. One will not
merge simply into the other that easily," she said. "All the power from Hoover
is already allocated to specific agencies."
That hasn't stopped Ingebretsen.
His goal, along with the Sierra Club's, is to get Congress
to authorize an environmental impact statement. The Glen Canyon Institute is
preparing a lawsuit that Ingebretsen hopes will force the government to conduct
a study.
Ingebretsen would like the lake drained and the dam
decommissioned within 20 years.
Living Rivers has a more immediate goal: it wants it done
by 2008.
Churning debate
It's another searing hot summer day on Lake Powell, and Bert Revere and his bird
Kooks are enjoying the water from the deck of Revere's houseboat docked at
Wahweap.
"Can you imagine what this would be if they drained it?" he
asked. "It's be a mud hole."
Revere, 64, of Sedona, Ariz., and his fellow boaters can't
figure out why anyone would want to drain their playground.
Residents up the road in Page are just angry. They think of
the environmentalists as intruders, well-funded groups that advocate draining
Lake Powell with no regard to the consequences - lost jobs, lost revenue and a
town that would fade away.
"They're not thinking what it would do," Nevills-Stavely
said. "It's the mystique of having Glen Canyon Dam destroyed."
Ingebretsen is sympathetic, but relentless.
"A lot of people say, "Who cares?" " he said. "But I hope
some people will say it was wrong."
