Mr. Chairmen,
members of the Subcommittees, my name is Adam Werbach and I am the President of the Sierra Club. Today I represent our over half a million members across the country in supporting the restoration of one of the most
special places on Earth -- Glen Canyon -- for our families and our future.
Last November the Sierra Club's national Board of Directors voted unanimously to support draining Lake Powell reservoir behind Glen Canyon
Dam. This might have surprised some people, but it was a natural decision for the Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club has been trying to protect special places throughout the Colorado River Basin for nearly half a century.
Our organization has been and remains committed to saving the crown jewels of the Colorado Plateau for this and future generations. We have a long history of urging protection for such places as the Green and Yampa
rivers in Dinosaur National Monument, the Animas River in Colorado and the river canyons along the Colorado River through what today is known as Grand Canyon National Park.
The Sierra Club never thought it was a good
idea to flood Glen Canyon, but we had no idea how wrong it was at the time it was first proposed. Glen Canyon was "The Place No One Knew". Few people had experienced its natural majesty. Few people rafted its
waters. Few people explored the side canyons. Few people knew the quiet magnificence of this magical place which was lost.
The sense of remorse spreads beyond the Sierra Club. Former Senator Barry Goldwater recently
stated in the PBS documentary "Cadillac Desert" that "I'd vote against it. I've become convinced that, while water is important -- particularly for those of us who live in the desert -- it's not that
important."
Draining Lake Powell is not just about restoring a place more mysterious than the Grand Canyon, though that alone would be worth it.
It is about facing the reality that we are asking too much of
the Colorado River. We are not being good stewards of this resource nor are we providing a safe future for our children in the way we are abusing the river today.
In destroying Glen Canyon we have eliminated some of
the most productive habitat for native Colorado River fish, many of which have been smothered forever from the face of the Earth while the remaining species hang on in isolated and aging populations in a few places
along the river. The Colorado River Compact promises more water to the Basin States and to Mexico than nature promises to provide based on what we know now about past river flows.
Most of the river goes to water
plants, not people. And many of these plants, such as cotton, are not native to the desert, are heavy water users and would not be grown at all if their farming was not supported by a complex web of tax breaks,
subsidies and federal price supports.
The Colorado River system drains a vast area of our country, yet is so depleted by diversions along the way that most years its flow disappears into its riverbed sands miles from
its former mouth at the Sea of Cortez. Its death has caused the demise of a fishing industry and communities in neighboring Mexico, and threatens the ecological sanctuary recently established in that country to protect
rare porpoises and other endangered creatures in the delta region.
The Grand Canyon just downstream is suffering from the effects of Glen Canyon Dam, which has turned its warm water native fish habitats cold, cut off
the major supply of sediments to rebuild its beaches and shorelines, and prevented cleansing seasonal floods. Let us not be known as the generation that' destroyed the Grand Canyon.
In the not too distant future,
Lake Powell, like all reservoirs, will be rendered useless for water storage and' power by incoming silt. Lake Powell represents short-term vision, and those of us who are not old enough to have experienced Glen Canyon
pay the price.
Between seepage into the canyon walls around Lake Powell and evaporation from this vast flat water reservoir located at high elevation in one of the driest areas of the country, water loss is estimated
at almost 1 million acre feet per year according to the Bureau of Reclamation, enough for a city the size of Los Angeles.
This is no way to run a river, and it's not the legacy to leave for our children.
Information prepared by the Bureau of Reclamation itself in July, 1997 to address the issue of draining Lake Powell says that the difference between the average annual inflow to the reservoir and current Upper Basin use
"is enough to satisfy the Colorado River Compact obligation of 75 million acre feet per ten years to the lower basin without needing the storage of Lake Powell. In addition, recovered evaporation losses from Lake
Powell would help to meet any potential deficiency in the Mexican Treaty obligation."
We believe these preliminary analyses show that draining Lake Powell is possible without major dislocations, that it's
affordable, and that it's not too late to consider this option.
Hoover Dam and Lake Mead can continue to regulate the river and produce power. Glen Canyon Dam doesn't do anything different than Hoover and Mead in
that regard, but it does drown a unique natural treasure and destroy an ecosystem which we can still uncover and restore. The water saved by reduced evaporation and seepage from Lake Powell will add water supply back
into the system. The power generation lost from Glen Canyon Dam can be replaced by natural gas or conservation elsewhere, and the cost spread over the rate base of the Western power grid should not be prohibitive.
Today, people are reevaluating at our past fascination with dams. And reviewing and changing dam operations is not without precedent. Congress has directed that the Elwa Dam in Washington State be removed to restore the
river. Reservoirs in the Columbia and Snake river basins are being proposed for drawdown to restore salmon runs. Glen Canyon Dam itself has been reregulated by 1992 legislation. The Bureau of Reclamation assumes the
economic life of dams is only 75 years. Even former Interior Secretary and now head of the Christian Coalition Don Hodel suggested in 1987 that O'Shaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley be
removed.
The Sierra Club supports evaluating the tradeoffs and opportunities of draining Lake Powell through an environmental assessment. We urge the Administration to undertake this review. Such an analysis has
never been done because it wasn't required at the time Glen Canyon Dam was built. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it shouldn't hurt to at least look at the information.
Our goal is to make the
"place no one knew" the place everyone knows about. And we believe the American public will choose in favor of Glen Canyon
