boatman's quarterly review - Grand Canyon River Guides

Where We Began: 1983 Flood and GCES
(for those of you who don’t remember, GCES preceded GCMRC).
The fall of 1982 was wet and wild as the rains
came, the ground soaked up moisture and the
snows came. We knew we were going to be in for
a big water year when the snows came early and deep to
the high country. On December 6, 1982 after considerable
debate, discussion, criticism and argument, Secretary
of the Interior James Watt signed the directive to
begin the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies (gces)
in the Grand Canyon. Political thought in Washington
and Salt Lake City figured that if you threw a little
money and effort into collecting data that the frenzy
over the operations of Glen Canyon Dam would just go
away—they always had in the past.
The spring of 1983 brought lots of excitement as the
gces began to ramp up. Since the early ’80s we had been
measuring the flows necessary to keep the trout happy
below the dam and we thought we could get moving
come summer. Unfortunately, what we saw was a runoff
train barreling down the canyons. The winter lasted and
lasted with a major snowstorm hitting the high country
the end of May followed by a hot spell that resulted in
massive and fast runoff.
By the time the Bureau of Reclamation (bor) figured
out that the amount of space in Powell did not measure
up to the amount of water running off of the mountains
it was too late. But, we have the spillways don’t we.
Why worry Well worrying was in order due to the
known inherent design flaw in the Glen Canyon Dam
spillways. As a result, the bor opened up the river bypass
tubes and cranked the eight generators at the dam to full
bore plus a little extra. The dam and power plant was
rocking and the rocks were flying. Eventually of course
the spillways were called into action and damage
began—it was only a matter of time.
Doing science below the dam brought its own special
opportunities for adventure. On several occasions I was
asked to motor up from Lees Ferry to gather water
samples. As one got within five miles of the dam you
could feel the force of the river and a mist was rolling
down Glen Canyon. Up on the dam itself the rumbling
and shaking was unmistakable and not right—was this
the way it was supposed to work I was at the dam the
day it was decided to close the spillways, add plywood to
the top of the gates, and hope for the best. The water
had turned a shade of red that was oddly similar to the
color of the Navajo Sandstone. Concrete chunks the size
of Volkswagen bugs were flying out the spillway and the
anticipated smooth hydraulic jump at the base of the
spillway had turned into a vicious surging and slamming
back and forth. The Colorado River was in the midst of
a smack-down match with the concrete edifice of the
bor. It was a sight to see and feel. More than a few bor
folks were having sleepless nights as the water continued
to rise.
Downstream things were happening fast and furious.
River trips were being warned to “Camp High.” The
bottom line for me was the force and power of the river.
Many of us had never seen the river flexing its muscle in
such manner. Watching the Bureau engineers and water
managers calculate and recalculate the risks and options
led me to see very quickly that the Glen Canyon Environmental
Studies were going to be changed before we
got our first data collected.
Whether you like the Bureau or not, one had to
admire the effort of the people who rallied to protect the
dam. As the water rose against the plywood on the
spillway gates, contingencies of all sorts were being
made. Eventually the inflow to the reservoir began to go
down, the plywood was replaced with steel plates and
the spillway repairs were commenced. Downstream,
sandbars and beaches were reshaped—some larger, some
gone. The Canyon river corridor had a face lift that was
unanticipated.
Never at a loss for an opportunity, a suggestion was
made by several Basin states that the environmental
studies were no longer needed due to the changed conditions.
After all hadn’t the dam rebuilt the beaches We
traipsed back to Washington, dc, one more time to
confer with the political muscle. The result was that
Secretary of the Interior James Watt decided—in
perhaps one of his last acts before he was fired—that the
studies would go forward but with some additional
elements to assess. That story, my friends, is for another
day except for one small post script:
Several years after Watt left Interior, I ran into him
in the Salt Lake City airport. We chatted for a minute,
talked about our meetings at the Interior and how he
should have just paid us conservation types off as we
were now actually going to do an eis on Glen Canyon
Dam. That was not part of the script that had been laid
out for me in 1983. Some people don’t change.
Dave Wegner
Former gces Chief
page 16
grand canyon river guides