Lawsuit seeking dismantling of Glen Canyon Dam

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Bjorn Steller

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I think we all know the issues with Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. I personally view it as how we as humanity can screw something up as beautiful as Glen Canyon and create something as equally beautiful and mystical as Lake Powell. I will take those kinds of screw-up any day over all other things we have done to damage our planet.


And of course the basics of Glen Canyon vs Lake Powell.
 
I must say...the NG video is just amazing!
Lake Powell...whew. So many emotions, anger, fear, frustration....sadness. It happened...and, although I love archeology and history, I also love humanity and have hope for the future of humanity...we are born with an innate sense of survival, of purpose, progress. Are we to simply become one big cemetery? What is the number...99 billion? 99,000,000,000 people have lived and DIED and are BURIED on this planet...if we are fool enough to hold each place they lived, hunted, died in some sort of imagined 'sacredness' then we are doomed. That doesn't mean we can't appreciate what they left behind, but, we can't make it all off limits if we hope to survive, either.
Concerning Lake Powell, there is no going back & when you consider the depth of this so-called environmentally climate changing lake? Seriously? It is nothing...like a fly on an elephant...it isn't even felt.
The only thing I would recommend for Lake Powell is to transfer the shores to the states in which they reside and open some of it up for private development while keeping the rest as State Park & Recreation Areas. :)
Perhaps one law suit deserves another?
 
NO electricity generated and NO water stored/distributed by Glen Canyon Dam was consumed in the compilation or filing of this lawsuit............yep.
 
None of this is new! Look at The Monkey Wrench Gang or The Lake Powell Institute. The environmental groups have been trying to shut it down since the beginning. There is too much money involved. The government cannot afford to let them drain it. Eventually it is going to go away because we are not smart enough to conserve the electricity and the water not because of some lawsuit.
 
I must say...the NG video is just amazing!
Lake Powell...whew. So many emotions, anger, fear, frustration....sadness. It happened...and, although I love archeology and history, I also love humanity and have hope for the future of humanity...we are born with an innate sense of survival, of purpose, progress. Are we to simply become one big cemetery? What is the number...99 billion? 99,000,000,000 people have lived and DIED and are BURIED on this planet...if we are fool enough to hold each place they lived, hunted, died in some sort of imagined 'sacredness' then we are doomed. That doesn't mean we can't appreciate what they left behind, but, we can't make it all off limits if we hope to survive, either.
Concerning Lake Powell, there is no going back & when you consider the depth of this so-called environmentally climate changing lake? Seriously? It is nothing...like a fly on an elephant...it isn't even felt.
The only thing I would recommend for Lake Powell is to transfer the shores to the states in which they reside and open some of it up for private development while keeping the rest as State Park & Recreation Areas. :)
Perhaps one law suit deserves another?

Opening it up for private development would be another huge mistake IMHO. Mostly because of what is referred to as "gentrification".

Basically it's when people with a lot of money make it impossible for people with less money to live anywhere near where they work or retire.

If the shores of Lake Powell and the entire Glen Canyon area were opened up for unfettered commercial consumption it would quickly turn into a situation like areas in Hawaii where everyone wants to live by the beach, outside investors come in and purchase everything they can get their hands on, pump hundreds of thousands of additional tourists into the area, which over stresses the infrastructure, drives up inflation, and artificially drives real-estate prices up and up and up.

At some point it causes a situation where nobody who actually works a normal job in the area (or is retired) can afford to live there anymore and all the real-estate is owned by out of state interests and therefore have no incentive to channel profits back into local re-investments, improvements, taxes, etc. to maintain the roads, water infrastructure, power grid, services, local business, etc.

I vehemently support keeping all national parks and preserves strictly controlled and owned by government because otherwise there would be nothing left in 500 years.

Seems like a long time away, but imagine if our forefather's hadn't had the foresight to initially create the national parks system... only the richest of the rich and billion dollar corporations would have access to the most beautiful places in our country.
 
Chris, I don't think Joy was recommending opening up GCNRA to development. Just tongue in cheek solution to create Lake Powell shoreline in other areas. I have been going to LP since 1971, and the drainers still advocate for a Glen Canyon that could only be visited by maybe a few thousand rafters each year. Perfect. /sarc
 
Tourism has exploded in Page in the last 2 or 3 years. Look at Horseshoe Bend. 5 years ago maybe 20 or 30 people went out there every hour. This year 1 million a year. It looks like a pilgrimage going over the hill. How many new hotels in Page in 3 years? The place is over run with tourists. Big John's BBQ is a cash machine. Tourists are here longer every year. Used to drop off in Oct. now its Nov. Used to start in April, now its March.
Most houses in town are VRBOs. Tour groups are turning to smaller 20-30 passenger vans and car caravans now. The shelves are empty at Walmart every day. Safeway is full up all day long.
Traffic on the streets is like downtown LA now.

No way is the dam going bye-bye. TOO many people affected if it did. And that's not even counting the water use and electrical generation.
 
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