ow steady summer flows (lssf). As of April 6, the Bureau of Reclamation (bor) decided that, barring no big surprises in the weather, low steady flows of 8,000 cfs will be released from the dam from June 1 to October 1. The April 1 National Weather Service prediction for water year 2000 inflow to Lake Powell is 9.65 million acre feet, low enough that the bor is willing to run the experiment promised to us Fish and Wildlife Service at the close of the Glen Canyon Dam eis. That promise (a Reasonable and Prudent Alternative) was to experiment with low steady summer flows to determine if the humpback chub (and other endangered native fishes) could thrive and establish a reproducing population in the main stem under warmer conditions. Presently, the chub only reproduce in the mouth of the Little Colorado River (lcr), which puts them in jeopardy status.
As a result of the lssf, there will be a large reduction of hydropower revenue due to the loss of peaking power from the lssf. We thank Dave Sabo of Western Area Power Administration, Leslie James of Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, and Ted Rampton of the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems for their willingness to support the lssf experiment and provide the two million bucks required for the additional science and monitoring.
The planned hydrograph for the summer is shown below (but, of course, things are always subject to change). As of April 10, the plan is for constant 17,000 cfs through the rest of April. On about May 3, a 31,000 cfs spike will be released for four days. The rest of May will be constant 19,000 cfs, stepped down to a constant 13,500 cfs, May 26–31. Beginning June 1, Plan A will be constant 8,000 cfs until October 1. If the late season weather gets heavy in the Rockies, Plan B will be to fluctuate flows between 8,000–13,000 cfs for that same period. If the weather gets very heavy, the fluctuating flows will be somewhat higher.
The constant 17–19,000 cfs in April–May is designed to make the river flow around the top of the island at the mouth of the Little Colorado River (lcr) in an attempt to pond the lcr. This would theoretically create a refuge for the baby humpback chubs, so that they can get big enough to compete in the bad-ass world of the Colorado River, which is full of non-native predator fish (carp, catfish, trout, stripers, etc.).
The four-day spikes at power-plant capacity (32,000 cfs) in early May and early September are designed to flush the competitive and predatory non-native fish downstream from the mouth of the lcr. This would theoretically reduce competitive pressures on the chubs as they emerge from their lcr nursery and try to make it in the outside world. We've got our fingers crossed that the predators won't also flourish in these warm, low flow conditions.
Impacts to Boaters from the Low Steady Summer Flows.
1) The average speed of the current will be low, challenging all boaters to work harder to stay on schedule.
2) More on-river time will result in less time for side hikes.
3) Camps will likely smell of urine, unless boaters are very conscientious about ensuring that everyone pees in the river, not on the wet sand near the shoreline.
4) Boaters will be more stacked up behind major rapids. More boats could wrap and people will need assistance. More equipment could be damaged or lost due to the rockiness of the rapids.
5) There will be many more places to camp than previous years.
6) The river will be slightly warmer with less danger of hypothermia.
Institutional home for Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. The institutional home for gcmrc will soon be the us Geological Survey, rather than the Bureau of Reclamation or the National Park Service, a debate for the past two years. This is good because it relieves the bor and the nps from potential conflict of interest. It gives the usgs, an Interior agency devoted to science, the opportunity to demonstrate its scientific and administrative acumen in the service of adaptive ecosystem management.
Adaptive Management Program (amp) Strategic Plan. We hope to complete and adopt the amp Strategic Plan at the July 6–7 Adaptive Management Work Group (amwg) meeting in Phoenix. I have worked with Rick Johnson of the Grand Canyon Trust to infuse the plan with an ecosystem management paradigm, as differentiated from a single species management paradigm or hydropower paradigm. Ecosystem management recognizes the need to re-establish the primary elements of the native ecosystem that existed prior to disturbance from the dam. To do this, we attempt to re-establish “natural pattern and process” for water quality, temperature, flow regime, and sediment, while allowing for a “natural range of variability” in native ecosystem species and physical elements. The test flood of 1996 and lssf are examples of the “natural pattern and process” being restored to the Grand Canyon river ecosystem. We plan to do more.

Andre Potochnik