River Resource Management in the Grand Canyon (1996) / Chapter Skim
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pages 1-10
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Glen Canyon Dam offers many benefits, including the measured distribution of approximately 15 million acre-feet of valuable western water, the generation of hyciropower valued at $50 million to $100 million per year, the maintenance of a prized Goldwater trout fishery below the dam, the control and storage of sediment, and recreation in Lake Powell. Among the environmental costs of the dam, however, are the suppression of native fishes, including endangered fishes native to the Colorado River, erosion of beaches valued as campsites by rafters, support of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and large daily changes in discharge volume and water level that are potentially harmful to aquatic and riparian communities and are considered aesthetically unclesirable by most visitors to the river.
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The GCES program is important not only in rationalizing changes in the operation of Glen Canyon Dam, but also as a forerunner and prominent example of the challenges that federal agencies face in conducting complex environmental studies that ultimately allow the comparison of costs and benefits across diverse categories of resources. WORK OF THE NRC COMMITTEE In 1986, after Phase I of the GCES was underway, the BOR requested that the National Academy of Sciences appoint, through the National Research Council's Water Science and Technology Board, a committee to oversee and review the GCES.
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RESULTS OF THE GCES Although GCES produced numerous useful results, it had not completed any final synthesis or integrated report as of September 1995. It is not clear whether final synthesis will occur, nor was the NRC committee able to review such a synthesis even in draft form.
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These include slurry pipelines for augmentation of sediment supply and a reregulation dam that would allow more complete control of flow for environmental purposes while also allowing maintenance of maximum power revenues. Sediment and Hydrology The GCES provided valuable information on sediment dynamics in the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead.
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The GCES provided some ofthefirst comprehensive inventories of aquatic life along the Colorado River corridor and resulted in an excellent study of the humpback chub and studies of other endangered species and of trout. While this information is essential in support of ecosystem analysis, GCES failed to progress to a comprehensive view of connections between biotic components, physical or chemical habitat features, and operations.
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and sites of tribal significance not marked by specific artifacts, were originally not accorded appropriate recognition in the GCES study plan. In the late phases of GCES, some of these components, as well as some studies of endangered species, were examined in a manner that did not always address the basic objectives of GCES.
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From page 7... ...
The development of agency entitlements also weakened the ability of project management to enforce contractual obligations made by agencies to GCES and increased project costs by diffusing the focus of study. These institutional problems are very likely generic to cooperative ventures involving federal agencies and need to be remedied in future projects through greater independence and authority of project management over project resources.
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Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. National Research Council.
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1993. Letter report to Tim Randle, Bureau of Reclamation, February 26, Committee to Review the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies comments on January 1993 preliminary draft "Operation of Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River Storage Project, Arizona." Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D.Cs ~e-P~ Nominal Research Council 19g4b. Rave ~ the Drag Federal Long~rm ~onhoMng Plan for the Colorado River Belch Glen Canyon Dam.
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