George Frey for The New York Times
Chris Peterson, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute, walks along the Escalante River in the drought-stricken canyon. A former water line is visible along the rock wall. The drought has uncovered spots that were underwater for more than 30 years.
George Frey for The New York Times
A severe drought has made Glen Canyon, at the shallow confluence of Coyote Creek and Escalante River, open and visible much as it was before the dam was built.
of course the glen canyon operators could add a siphon to a deeper place, to keep the turbines running.
Interesting reading.
Water demand will be the next environmental crisis in America. It could get ugly.
And when the turbines stop, the Sierra Club is going to get it a@@ kicked.
Muleteam1
Years ago I read "Cadillac Desert." Wonderful book that told the stories of dam building west of the Mississippi. I'll have to dig that out and re-read it. I'm wondering, in particular, the impact this will have on Los Angeles...water, electricity, etc. as LA was a prime motivator for a lot of the dam construction back then. That cross-state water pipeline comes to mind, too. I think this might be about a whole lot more than seeing some river valleys that had been covered with water for so long.
Of course, it may not snow again for the rest of the winter. ;-P
Obviously the canyon was there all along. A dam is an engineering project with a lifetime. Eventually the dam would be gone again and the canyon can pick up where it left off, probably for another 10,000 years. Nothing is lost. They'll have to find water someplace else, sounds like, or everybody move like the people before them and the people before them etc. as long as there have been people there.
Before the dam there was merely a wide creek, so what's the point here?
...and author of an eco-terrorism handbook...
I look at it this way God Made it perfect Man using the intelect God gave him used it for his own good God will someday make it Perfect again until the Men have other ways of getting water they may not be the way man wants but God will Provide a way
Until then enjoy the low waters and explore whats not been seen Since man burried it !
BS. Precipitation is cyclical, the lake will be full again at some point. Back-to-back 100 year storms are a statistical improbability, and the bottom line is that the hydro-power dam has been good for society as a whole.
PC BS. Nuff said.
They're in love with the words of John Muir, but they can't see that they're destroying an environmental masterpiece, just because it happens to be "man-made".
This "buried treasure" is all over that area of the southwest. Thousands upon thousands of acres of it, that all looks the same. But bury some fraction of it with a beautiful, but man-made lake, and the enviros go nuts.
The fact that it will put thousands of people out of work that depend on lake revenue will get their rocks off too. They love destroying the US economy.
For whatever it's worth, 2.5 million visitors annually must have approved of the lake. I doubt if the "treasures" attracted one-tenth that number before the dam.
It can certainly be argued that the lake, when it was full, exposed a different set of "treasures" every bit as desireable as the present ones. The only difference now is the agenda.
Great and slick propaganda piece, though, by the Bugs and Bunny crowd.
There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.'" The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature" -- but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the "naturist" reveals his hatred for his own race -- i.e., his own self hatred.
In the case of "Naturists" such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women -- it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly "natural."
by Robert Anson Heinlein
There is very little human garbage in the shin-deep river that runs through the old lake bed. On a recent exploration, hikers saw only a plastic bucket and a bottle.
I find this really encouraging. When I started reading the article I envisioned the land covered with sunken cars, washing machines, empty bottles and cans. Must be that it’s relatively far from “civilization”.
My faith in human nature was renewed when I read this:
"Every rock you turn over has toilet paper under it from the years this was a campsite for boats."
Not being familiar with recreational boats, I always just assumed that holding tanks were mandatory for them as well as for commercial vessels.