2004 Runoff

As of March 14, 2004, the level of Lake Powell is down to 3585' msl.  It now appears we are headed for our 5th consecutive year of below normal spring runoff with the current snowpack at only 89% of normal and the snow sitting on extremely dry ground.  2004 runoff is likely to be better than 2003 but stilll significantly below normal.  MORE

Colorado River showdown readied

In just 40 years, Glen Canyon Dam's chilly releases and a state trout
fishery have brought the 2 million-year run of the humpback chub in the
Colorado River nearly to an end, say environmentalists. MORE

EFFECTIVE DATE ON PERSONAL WATERCRAFT CLOSURE EXTENDED AT LAKE POWELL

PAGE, AZ  The National Park Service, through the Department of Justice, and Bluewater Network have reached an agreement to extend the date when personal watercraft (PWC) would be banned from eight units of the national park system. MORE

Blind zeal for draining Lake Powell twists facts

In the June 17 article "Dams' role in flux for urban West," Lisa Force, program director of Living Rivers, attacked Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell.

Force asserted that the ecosystem of the Grand Canyon "is on the brink of collapse" and disputed the critical importance of Glen Canyon's water storage and power production.

This distorted picture is symptomatic of the misinformation dispensed by Living Rivers.

It is also demonstrably false. MORE

Unsure waters

PHOENIX -- A crippling four-year drought has barely dented the popularity of Grand Canyon rafting trips on the Colorado River, which the Glen Canyon Dam feeds with a steady, if lessening, supply of water.  But the Upper Salt River rafting trip, considered by some outfitters to be one of the best in the western United States, has slowed to a trickle, wiping out this year's season. MORE

Zebra Mussel Watch

The zebra mussel, a black-and-white striped bivalve mollusk, came to North American waters from Europe in international shipping ballast water. Since first discovered in Lake St. Clair in June 1988, the zebra mussel has spread rapidly throughout the Great Lakes and the Arkansas, Cumberland, Hudson, Illinois, Mississippi, Mohawk, Niagara, Ohio, St. Lawrence, and Tennessee Rivers. The mussel is expected to spread to other fresh water bodies and waterways throughout North America in the next several decades. MORE

Page students celebrate anniversary of razorback sucker revival with fish release

PAGE -- The razorback sucker recovery program at Page High School celebrated its fifth birthday recently with a trip to Shiprock, N.M., of all places.  PHS students traveled to the small Four Corners community to deposit dozens of the endangered fish into the San Juan River.  Razorback suckers, once a common fish in the Colorado River system, are beginning to gain a tiny foothold in the San Juan arm of Lake Powell.  Efforts to revive the razorback sucker population in the Colorado's upper basin began in 1997. MORE

New Fish Species Found at Lake Powell

GIZZARD SHAD STATUS  During routine fish sampling in August on Lake Powell's upper San Juan arm six gizzard shad were collected. This forage species is new to Lake Powell and the main-stem Colorado River drainage. Shad averaged 4 inches and were suspected to be naturally reproduced within the lake. Ramifications of a new species of fish are wide and varied.  MORE

Study shows 'train wreck' of a forecast

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Global warming will have a devastating effect on the availability of water in the western United States, according to a new study done by a team of scientists. The study is billed as the most positive of a series of recent climate forecasts for a region already beset by drought. MORE

Rally Rips Curbs for Watercraft

About 100 riders swarmed over the surface of Lake Powell on Saturday in a protest of federal moves to ban personal watercraft usage as early as November. MORE

Critics: Canyon river plan ignores dam

Opponents of Glen Canyon Dam and supporters of wilderness designation for Grand Canyon National Park are outraged that the National Park Service isn't considering the issues in the revised Colorado River Management Plan. MORE

Powell sinking to 29-year low

PAGE -- A lot of white is showing around Lake Powell this summer, at the height of a four-year drought. MORE

Dams' role in flux for urban West

You can talk about the climate, the citrus, the copper. You can wax rhapsodic about the plentiful land and even air-conditioning. But the truth is, Phoenix would still be a dusty, sparsely populated cow town if it weren't for an unglamorous government agency dreamed up more than a century ago by a one-armed river runner.  MORE

House blocks Glen Canyon Dam decommissioning studies

The Flagstaff-based Glen Canyon Institute, with a mission of decommissioning the Glen Canyon Dam, is reeling from a recent U.S. House of Representatives decision to prohibit funding for any studies related to their purpose MORE

Contractor's proposal for new Lake Powell marina OK'd

A 31-year-old plan to build a resort-marina at Lake Powell's Antelope Point has inched a step closer to completion. MORE

A better place
By Seth Muller Lake Powell Chronicle

The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area has been plagued with carbon monoxide deaths, vandalistic sandstone carvings and non-native plant species that choke out the native flora and fauna.

During a recent interview, Park Superintendent Kitty Roberts said she wants to continue efforts to eliminate each of these problems in 2002, and spoke of accomplishments this past year to curb them. MORE

Lake Powell gets facelift from volunteers on cleanup day

PAGE -- Before leaving your favorite cove or canyon on Lake Powell, be sure to leave your mark -- initials, dates or some other calling card carved into the Navajo sandstone.

That's a tradition that National Park Service officials and others want to see eliminated in the million-acre Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. MORE

Lake Powell supporters want legislators to help protect Glen Canyon Dam

PHOENIX -- The people who live, work and play in Page are there for one reason, Lake Powell. And they don't want anybody taking it away from them.

Supporters of the lake went to the capitol Thursday to ask state lawmakers to help protect Glen Canyon Dam from efforts to tear it down. They are backing a proposed memorial to the U.S. Congress that would state Arizona's opposition to any attempts to breach or remove the dam. Such memorials are essentially post cards that have no binding affect on lawmakers' actions. MORE

Lake Powell Protest at Antelope Point

PAGE -- An environmentalist group that wants to see the end of Lake Powell made its first Arizona stops Friday on its five-day "Sedimental Journey."

Moab, Utah-based Living Rivers brought a dump truck, director Owen Lammers, three singers and the president of the Dine Medicinemens Association. MORE