Monday, May 15, 2006

Glen Canyon Remembered It must be big dam day here on Coyote Gulch. Here's a story about a new dvd from W.L. 'Bud' Rusho from the Deseret News. The dvd details the construction of Glen Canyon dam and the rush to save archaeological sites before the waters rose. Lake Powell is the principal storage for Colorado to meet the downstream demands on Colorado River water. From the article, "Last week Rusho released 'Glen Canyon Remembered,' a DVD that provides a haunting glimpse of the canyons that have been lost beneath the waters of Lake Powell. Running one hour, 10 minutes, with extras such as a historic film, the DVD is available at Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East. Besides the lore of the river and the beauty of the vanished canyons, the DVD provides stories about the massive archaeological salvage project that attempted to save some of the region's prehistoric treasures. It describes the history of the region, including John Wesley Powell's two explorations; surveys for railroads and dam sites; the 'discovery' of Rainbow Bridge, which had been known to Indians in the area; ill-fated gold dredging; river-running; early filmmaking in the canyon; and the mysterious disappearance of the young artist Everett Ruess. A historian who lives in Holladay, Rusho has authored books about Ruess, who vanished in 1934 after leaving Escalante and heading toward Davis Gulch. As a public affairs chief, Rusho headed a team of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation photographers recording the construction of Glen Canyon Dam near Page, Ariz. The dam was built between 1956 and 1964, with the first three years dedicated to excavating and shaping the site. This was followed by placing the concrete and building the power plant. Rusho started his part of the project in 1958, and Lake Powell began filling in 1963..." "When Lake Powell was still quite low, a friend invited Rusho to visit the Crossing of the Fathers, where the Dominguez-Escalante expedition had cut steps in the slickrock in the 1770s. He was horrified by the thought that the lake would inundate the historic site. 'All of a sudden things came together,' he recalled. He thought, 'What have I done? What have I participated in? . . . It's terrible.' Rusho has preserved some of that history and natural beauty in "Glen Canyon Remembered.' Especially interesting from a scientific standpoint is his section on the Glen Canyon Salvage Project, which carried out archaeological excavations before the reservoir covered an estimated 2,000 ancient sites. Under federal law, the Bureau of Reclamation paid for the salvage operation. The bureau passed money along to the National Park Service, he said, which contracted with the University of Utah and the Museum of Northern Arizona. Under the leadership of the famous U. archaeologist Jesse Jennings, teams worked against the relentless rise of the lake water. They only tried to 'salvage the principal things,' Rusho said." Category: Colorado Water 6:43:51 AM     Animas-LaPlata update Here's an update on the construction of the Animas-LaPlata project from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article, "The Animas-La Plata water project is more than 35 percent complete and about half a million dollars under budget, according to engineers involved with the behemoth undertaking in Durango. The project has been in the works for nearly 50 years to settle water-rights claims for the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo Nation tribes. It will divert water from the Animas River to be stored in Lake Nighthorse, which will hold 120,000 acre-feet of water. A half-acre-foot is enough water to supply an average family of four with water for one year. More than 60 percent of the water will settle water-rights claims for the tribes, but other beneficiaries will include the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado Water and Power Resources Development Authority, the Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District, the San Juan Water Commission and the city of Durango. When completed in 2011, the project will provide the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and people of the Four Corners area with a reliable water supply for their future needs, without taking water resources away from existing water users in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The project also will supply 4,680 acre-feet of water per year through a pipeline from Farmington, N.M., to Shiprock, N.M., for the Navajo Nation... "From the intake on the Animas River, which includes a large fish screen that returns fish back to the river, there is a large pumping plant where workers are installing more than 500 individual concrete placements. The plant, when complete, will lift the water 550 feet. The water will then be piped 2.1 miles to Lake Nighthorse, named after retired U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Ignacio. At the lake site, the Ridges Basin Dam is undergoing construction. The dam, which will be the most expensive feature of the project, will be 275 feet tall and will cost more than $80 million. The dam will be an embankment earthen-fill dam constructed of about 5.6 million yards of fill material... "The dam should be complete by 2008. An 8-foot-diameter pipe, bored through a mountain, will carry water past the dam and downstream, eventually taking water back to the Animas via a 4.5-mile jaunt down Basin Creek. Lake Nighthorse won't likely be filled until 2011, with filling taking a full two years from 2009 to 2011... "The Bureau of Reclamation has not built a new dam since the early 1990s, and the Animas-La Plata Project will include the first major dam of the 21st century." Category: Colorado Water 6:24:36 AM     More Fryingpan water for the Colorado River Water Conservation District? Aspen Times: "The Colorado River Water Conservation District is trying to secure the water from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to fulfill its mission is to provide water for Western Slope users. The river district wants to preserve that water for future municipal and industrial uses in the growing Western Slope, according to spokesman Dave Merritt. After securing the water, it would sell it to users. The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Ruedi Reservoir, is reviewing the request and seeking public comment under the strict guidelines of the National Environmental Protect Act... "The water purchase has a potential adverse effect on fishing in the Fryingpan River, which the Colorado Division of Wildlife classifies as 'Gold Medal' waters for the amount and size of trout it harbors. The river district's water purchase could lead to more water releases from Ruedi in late summer - when users demand it. In theory, the river level could be pushed past the 250 cubic feet per second level the bureau tries to maintain for optimal fishing. The purchase could also affect the Aspen Yacht Club during the later part of the summer. The club needs the water to be at a certain level to use its facilities. Ruedi holds 102,369 acre-feet of water. The yacht club needs 93,000 acre-feet or more... "...the request also has environmental advantages. Merritt said the river district anticipates demand will grow by 300 acre-feet per year for the 5,000 acre-feet it wants to acquire. Therefore, it would have as much as 4,700 acre-feet available for other uses in 2006. It doesn't anticipate selling all the water it acquires until the year 2021. Rather than just let that water sit in Ruedi, the water district is proposing to draw an environmental benefit from it. Releasing the water during winters could maintain higher flows on the Fryingpan River, Merritt said. The Bureau of Reclamation tries to maintain a minimum streamflow of 39 cfs on the river during winter. Environmentalists and anglers fear that level is too low too support good habitat. The Roaring Fork Conservancy is monitoring conditions to test the theory." Category: Colorado Water 6:14:41 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 11:37:31 AM.