ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
Requests
that the United States Congress oppose any efforts to breach or remove Glen
Canyon Dam or to drain Lake Powell.
Construction
of Glen Canyon Dam (dam) started in 1957 and was completed in 1963 in order to
implement the provisions of the 1922 Colorado River Compact. Located in northern Arizona, just south of
the Utah border, the 710-foot high dam is located near the Colorado River
Compact point. The structure was built
primarily to store water and to control allocations of water from the Upper
Colorado River Basin to the Lower Colorado River Basin.
On April 11, 1956, Congress
passed into law the Colorado River Storage Project Act (CRSP) to support
development of water resources of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The purposes
of the development were to: (1) regulate the flow of the Colorado River; (2)
store water for beneficial consumptive use; (3) provide for the reclamation of
arid and semiarid land; (4) control floods; and (5) generate hydroelectric
power, incidental to other stated purposes.
The dam stores more water
than all other units of the CRSP combined with a total capacity of 27 million
acre-feet. Lake Powell provides 40
percent of the water storage capability in the Colorado River system for seven
states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming –
while the dam provides electricity for more than a million households in the
Basin states. The nearby Navajo
Generating Station (NGS) provides 2,250 megawatts net generation of electricity
to millions of customers in Arizona, Nevada, California and Colorado.
According to the Salt River
Project (SRP), more than three million people visit Glen Canyon Dam and Lake
Powell annually for recreational purposes ranging from boating, fishing, jet
and water skiing to photography, as well as other activities. Nearby Page, Arizona has grown to a
population of 10,000 as a result of the economic benefits occurring because of
tourism and industry centered on the dam and Lake Powell. Also according to SRP, breaching the dam and
draining Lake Powell would result in closure of NGS, the loss of 1,254 Native
American and non-native jobs and significant financial losses. SRP also believes that there would be a
potential impact on groundwater management in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
1. Asks Congress to oppose any efforts to breach or remove Glen Canyon Dam and to drain Lake Powell.
2. Requests that Congress recognize and appreciate the benefits of the existence of the dam and Lake Powell.
3. Requests that the Secretary of State of Arizona transmit copies of this memorial to the President of the U.S. Senate and the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as the legislative leadership of the Basin states.
Prepared by Senate Staff
February 6, 2001