Release Lake Powell and this desert Eden will rise from the depths! The dam does not need to be taken down, just open the gates and let the river run through. Then, if future generations need the dam, there the structure will stand. Glen Canyon Dam is an inefficient endeavor. Currently, the reservoir spends over half of its time at less than 50% capacity. And what water there is evaporates or gets sucked up by the dry land – 600,000 acre-feet annually. (This is a disturbing amount: consider that Los Angeles uses 660,000 acre-feet of water annually.) Instead, better-planned water storage at sites with less evaporative potential would be much less wasteful. The Colorado River lower basin, in its natural state, has potential benefits. Ecotourism, in the form of river running and canyoneering expeditions, would be a huge boom for Arizona and Utah’s economies. These states could profit from what occurs naturally – a unique wilderness. The primordial ocean and its layers of sediment, revealed in Glen Canyon by the Colorado River’s patient presence and pressure for millenia, now hide beneath stagnant waters. Why are we damming Eden? And in doing so, will we damn ourselves?
Illustration by Ida Floreak 16
watershed