The Glen Canyon Institute

Rivers have always been divided into upper and lower water users. As water flows downstream, lower water users get “free” water. To prevent the lower Colorado River user states from getting “free” water, and to provide water for reclamation, in the l950s, the Bureau of Reclamation proposed the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP). A number of dams were to be built including ones in Echo Park, Split Mountain and Glen Canyon. Glen Canyon dam was “needed” so that only 7.5 million acre feet of water would flow downstream to “lower” water users, an amount agreed upon back in the 1930s in the Colorado River Compact.
Despite geologists' doubts about its design, hydrologists' assurance that the water storage would be wasteful and power engineers' prediction that kilowatts could come cheaper from a longer-lasting resource than from a short-lived public power dam on the over-engineered, silt-laden uniquely beautiful Colorado River, Glen Canyon dam was built. With its rising water, millions of acres of the most beautiful scenery in the world was destroyed, including over 3,000 Indian ruins and 200 miles of the Colorado River. Glen Canyon contained over 200 side canyons, almost all of which were spectacular to hike in. Lake Powell covered a natural bridge over 1/2 the size of Rainbow Bridge, called Gregory Natural Bridge.
Lake Powell does not put water on land. There is no delivery system in the reservoir to feed water to any cities or farms. It simply lies stagnant, evaporating and flowing into the side walls. The Bureau of Reclamation estimates that the lake evaporates over 550,000 acre feet of water each year and also loses over 1,000,000 acre feet of water each year into the sandstone. This total of 1,550,000 acre feet of water lost each year could better be utilized by cities and farms downstream. Lowering the level of the reservoir would allow that water to flow naturally downstream to Lake Mead where it can be utilized.
Lake Powell is a “temporary” reservoir, as it is filling in with sediment at the rate of 68,000 acre feet each year. At this rate, it will be completely full of sediment in about 300 years. However, the reservoir will probably have to be drained and the dam torn down much sooner. In perhaps as little as 100 to 150 years, when the silt fills the reservoir to just one half full, it will cover the eight intake tubes to the generators. At this point, water may rise rapidly and in fact “top” the dam and cause uncontrolled flooding downstream.
Over time aggraded silt will back up many miles into adjoining canyons— up into Cataract Canyon—up many miles into the Canyons of the Escalante destroying that priceless canyon—and up under Rainbow Bridge to a depth of 60 feet.
Downstream, Grand Canyon's native river ecosystem is suffering. The canyon below no longer sees the sediment rich annual flows of high water in the spring that it once depended on, and the water is a steady 47 degrees year round, far from the pre-dam highs and lows.
The Sea of Cortez estuary, which supports just over 10,000 species of life is rapidly dying because not enough Colorado River water or nutrients now reach it. These could potentially be supplied from the water now lost at Glen Canyon.
We have the ability today to begin the process of restoring the natural treasures of Glen Canyon. Cathedral of the Desert, perhaps the single most beautiful geologic feature in the State of Utah lies barely 80 feet below Lake Powell when the reservoir is full. Lowering the level of the reservoir a mere 100 feet would begin to restore this magnificent feature for all to see. A further 100 foot lowering of the reservoir would begin to bring back all of lower Cataract Canyon, including 26 of the biggest rapids on the Colorado River now flooded there. It would also restore and free spectacular Dark Canyon that sedimentation has already filled.
The delightful canyons of the Colorado above Glen Canyon Dam are a national treasure. Its time to bring them to the surface again.

Dr. Richard Ingebretsen
Glen Canyon Institute

Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association

As boating rivers in the American west becomes ever more popular, advocacy and information are vital to the private boater. Federal Agencies are actively seeking input into the use of the rivers they administer. United voices are steering change in use patterns on these rivers. The voices for the private boater in the Grand Canyon, though many, have never before been unified. With this in mind, I would like to extend an invitation to you to join the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association.
This organization will be open to all individuals interested in private river trips in Grand Canyon. It is this diversity of interest which will be our united strength. Some of the many issues which we hope to address include allocation of user days, increasing communication among the various parties involved, disseminating river related information, and participating in river management planning. This last issue is of vital importance as Grand Canyon National Park begins its revision of the Colorado River Management Plan. Our goals include working with government agencies and the commercial sector to insure continued river access to the Grand Canyon private boater.
In order for all this to happen, we need both your financial and written support. Do you have any articles or river related stories and or poetry you'd like to see in GCBPA's newsletter, The Waiting List? We are also seeking your financial support. A $20 donation covers a year's membership, $135 covers an eight year membership at 50 cents a mile, and $277 or more, at a dollar a mile, gives you a lifetime membership.
So come join us, and let's go boating.

Tom Martin, president GCPBA
Box 2133
Flagstaff, AZ 86003
520/214-8676

Guides Defending Constitutional Rights

Guides Defending Constitutional Rights is a group of high minded individuals in the river community who see that this type of search goes far beyond the guiding community, that it affects all Americans. This is an affront to our constitutional rights—it's despicable and it's loathsome.
For me it has to do with Article IV of the Bill of Rights. It has nothing to do with narcotics, their use, or their possession, all of which are illegal.
To really understand this, you have to view American citizens as being good people, law abiding, upstanding, and innocent until proven guilty. In this instance, we are compelled to prove ourselves innocent; it goes against everything that we have stood for in this country.
This is one of the examples of a search being done for the convenience of authorities, regardless of the inconvenience of citizens, regardless of the humiliation, the degradation and the shame that comes with such a search.
You cannot understand what we are doing unless you have pride in your own human dignity. It would be a psychological impossibility. Just as the historians tell us, the loss of one's rights comes very easily. Oppression moves on cat's feet.
What's happening in Grand Canyon reflects what's happening in our society in general. On the face of it you'd think that certainly it's just the people at the South Rim, but it's nationwide, an accepted paranoia, a way of life for the people in our government. They imagine a violation, then find some way to counteract it. That's what's happening in Washington DC, in the army and throughout the country. The government is running on low voltage paranoia. It's not good.

I despise drugs and their use. I despise what it's done to our country. I'm far more conservative than any of these ninnies who are coming up with these draconian measures. Drug use is a criminal offense under our present law. But the guarantee against unwarranted search—search without probable cause—is one of the foundations of our constitution.
I don't think this thing is about me. I want everybody to understand that I represent a community of guides in Grand Canyon, and a lot of people who are not guides but are very interested in this constitutional issue. If I weren't the plaintiff, there are dozens of other guides who could, and would, take my place. I can only hope that I will fairly represent the guides in this community, and that I will be able to conduct myself in a way that doesn't bring any discredit to this community.
Many, many people have come up to me and said that they thoroughly support this stand, that they're thinking of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They're not drug users to my knowledge; they know that this is an important issue, and they're backing it on that basis. New guides, old guides, men, women…

David Hinshaw, an attorney and former boatman has been working with us on this for some time. And we have now hired Deborah Fine, a lawyer who came from a very highly regarded firm in Phoenix, Lewis & Roca, and now lives, to our good fortune, in Flagstaff.
We need to raise quite a bit of money. Most of my friends have contributed a good bit, and I've given as much as I can. Our initial fund raising, done by networking among friends and fellow employees, has raised a great deal, but we are still only about 30 or 40 per cent of the way towards what we imagine it will cost. I hope that others will think of this issue—their contributions will be greatly appreciated. Just as importantly, their thoughts will be greatly appreciated. If they would write us and tell us their thoughts & ideas on this issue, we would all benefit.

I especially don't like working people being treated in this way, as they often don't have a voice—which is exactly why it happens.
By contributing to this fund and legal effort, people are helping to give themselves a voice in this matter. One of the basic ideas in having a democracy is that words have power.

Just as a participant, not speaking from legal a standpoint, I would hope that our results would affect all Americans. We have to go the way of human dignity, which is to follow our Bill of Rights, and take the consequences.

This is the best burrito of my life.
David Edwards
Guides Defending Constitutional Rights Box 1123, Flagstaff, AZ 86002