1902: President Roosevelt signs the Newlands Reclaimation Act, enabling engineers to begin investigations and produce reports on control and possible uses of the Colorado River, funding provided from western land sales and irrigation water
1905: torrential rains lead to the Colorado River breaking into Imperial Valley creating an inland sea of a hundred and fifty square miles
1920: Kinkaid Act is passed, allowing the Secretary of the Interior to investigate problems in Imperial Valley
1922: February- Fall-Davis report on the "Problems of Imperial Valley and Vicinity" is produced, recommending construction of a high dam on Colorado River
November- Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada sign the Colorado River Compact in Santa Fe, New Mexico
1928: Boulder Canyon Project Act is passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Coolidge- authorized construction of Boulder Dam
1935: construction of Hoover Dam completed
1954: Friends of Glen Canyon created, led by Ken Sleight, in order to save 1928 monument proposal
1956: Colorado River Storage Project authorized the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, passed by a slim Congressional vote in March
- Construction begins a year later with no Environmental Impact Assessment whatsoever
1957: Western Area Power Administration of the DOE now in charge of the marketing and selling of hydropower under the Department of Energy Organization Act
1963: Glen Canyon Dam completed, standing at a height of 710 feet, creating Lake Powell
1968: Colorado River Basin Act outlines the priorities of the Glen Canyon Dam
1970: Friends of the Earth along with Ken Sleight sued federal government for violating the CRSP
1974: Badoni vs. Higginson, Navajo tribe members sued Department of Interior, Commissioner of BOR, and Director of National Park Services for denying their sacred prayer spot and desecrating the sacred nature of the site
1981: environmentalist group Earth First! launched itself by unfurling a three-hundred foot plastic "crack" along the front of Glen Canyon Dam
1982: Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center created as a result of concerns about the health of the system
1992: Grand Canyon Protect Act- requires an Environmental Impact Statement be completed by 1994 on Glen Canyon
1995: Final EIS issued, calling for the leveling out of wide daily fluctuations in water flow from Glen Canyon Dam to lessen downstream effects
1996: March 22-April 7- 9 day trial flood of Lake Powell to stir up and relocate settled sediments from the bottom of the lake
1999: Glen Canyon Action Network was formed to build the citizen's movement to drain Lake Powell
2008: March- Lake Powell flooded again
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Opposition/Supporters
Opposers
Sierra Club: Originally fought hard to stop the construction of the Echo Park Dam, which they won, insisting that Glen Canyon would be a better site and they would not oppose that, until they say the beauty of Glen Canyon it was too late
Council of Conservationists: Fought to prevent the construction of the Echo Park Dam
National Park Service: opposed building dams inside national monuments. The purpose of the NPS was to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects . . . and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." In 1954 they accepted the dam would be build and began fighting to protect Rainbow Bridge and build protective measures.
National Parks Association: argued that the Park Service and the BOR had not considered all the threats to Rainbow Bridge
Living Rivers: nonprofit organization empowering the movement to instill a new ethic of achieving ecological restoration, balancing meeting human needs. They work to restore inundated river canyons, wetlands and the delta, repeal antiquated laws which represent the river's death sentence, reducce water and energy use and their impacts on the river, and recruit constituents to aid in reviving the Colorado. Their solution is to decommission the Glen Canyon Dam.
Supporters
Secretary of Interior: Steward Udall- under Kennedy administration- denied funding for protective measures against the destruction of the sacred monument-his brother Morris Udall- Arizona congressman also enthusiastic supporter
Bureau of Reclamation: goal- to water the arid west-In charge of choosing a location for the dam and providing a workforce
Community: much of the community of the lower basin states wants to secure their water rights from the river
- basically fighting for preservation of the Colorado River ecosystem and its species
- Dam would change patterns of erosion and sediment deposition
- archaeological sites once protected by sandbars would become exposed to erosion and ultimately destruction
Sierra Club: Originally fought hard to stop the construction of the Echo Park Dam, which they won, insisting that Glen Canyon would be a better site and they would not oppose that, until they say the beauty of Glen Canyon it was too late
Council of Conservationists: Fought to prevent the construction of the Echo Park Dam
National Park Service: opposed building dams inside national monuments. The purpose of the NPS was to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects . . . and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." In 1954 they accepted the dam would be build and began fighting to protect Rainbow Bridge and build protective measures.
National Parks Association: argued that the Park Service and the BOR had not considered all the threats to Rainbow Bridge
Living Rivers: nonprofit organization empowering the movement to instill a new ethic of achieving ecological restoration, balancing meeting human needs. They work to restore inundated river canyons, wetlands and the delta, repeal antiquated laws which represent the river's death sentence, reducce water and energy use and their impacts on the river, and recruit constituents to aid in reviving the Colorado. Their solution is to decommission the Glen Canyon Dam.
Supporters
Secretary of Interior: Steward Udall- under Kennedy administration- denied funding for protective measures against the destruction of the sacred monument-his brother Morris Udall- Arizona congressman also enthusiastic supporter
Bureau of Reclamation: goal- to water the arid west-In charge of choosing a location for the dam and providing a workforce
Community: much of the community of the lower basin states wants to secure their water rights from the river
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