By
Jessica Lee
The future of the Southwest remains inextricably tied to water.
A water Armageddon similar to the current energy disaster is looming in our distant future. The escalating water crisis has led to a monumental shift in focus among certain grassroots groups.
Now, instead of draining Lake Powell, they want to conserve the Colorado River water.
And rightfully so.
The main source of water in the Southwest is the Colorado River. It extends 1,450 miles from Wyoming to Mexico, traversing the most mountainous regions and most severe deserts in the United States. The river, once wild and silty red, has since been dammed.
Glen Canyon, on the border of Arizona and Utah, was one of the most exceptional of these sculpted canyon lands to be destroyed by the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. The dam was detrimental and controversial. Its construction spawned the Western environmental movement.
In the past five years, individuals and grassroots organizations have become obsessed with the most radical notion in the West: the possibility of decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam - that means draining the lake without tearing down the dam. Glen Canyon Institute and Glen Canyon Activist Network are the organizations leading the crusade to drain Lake Powell.
As an environmentalist, I give them the thumbs-up. But, those groups haven't got a chance. As all political issues go, to remove the dam legally will take many years of arm-wrenching, reciting tongue-tying facts, completing studies, crying and screaming out of frustration, not to mention finding the dollars. If the lake is ever to be drained, most likely it will be a result of an eco-terrorist, maybe just following the master plan of Hayduke in Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang."
Despite the political and economical difficulties, groups like the Glen Canyon Institute have been very serious and very productive in the last five years. So efficient, in fact, that some might recall seeing the billboard "Don't Let the Sierra Club Drain Lake Powell" littering central Phoenix as well as Page, Ariz.
One of the institute's top dogs met with President Clinton and Congress to persuade them to support an environmental impact statement regarding decommissioning the dam. Nothing was passed or signed into action.
Ironically, in spite of their gradual progress, many of these groups have currently put aside the fight to drain the lake. The creation of the "Sustainable Water Project Tour" is now making headlines in all major western cities. The project represents 120 advocacy groups and 12 million people in the United States and Mexico who are calling for restoring flows to the Colorado River delta.
And that's because draining one lake will not solve our scarce water problems.
On their current tour, the water hippies have been driving an empty water tanker truck through the Southwest hoping to fill it with water that would symbolize the reduction of Colorado River use.
It should not be a surprise the United States is screwing Mexico out of its share of Colorado River water. Only 10 percent of the original delta has not been destroyed.
As residents of the Southwest, we are all responsible.
Our situation is becoming more precarious as half of us tick away the summer afternoons in crystal-blue swimming pools, while the others play on green golf courses that dot the desert landscape.
Let us also set the Glen Canyon Dam controversy aside, and worry about something more crucial - saving Colorado River water.
The only thing we can do to help is cut back water usage in Tucson. And, we must encourage our Southern Californian neighbors to do the same.
