Publisher's Synopsis
Theme: The subtitle of this cogent tell-all monograph points the finger of shame and blame at the Bureau of 'Wrecklamation.' Ergo, it was the wrong goddamn place to build a dam & for all the wrong reasons!
Synopsis: Because "Glen Canyon's Forecasted Flooded Legacy's" three-part narrative has many moving parts (i.e., numerous related environmental, social, and bureaucratic quandaries), admittedly, this abstract is somewhat garrulous. Then again, these days, Glen Canyon's Lake Powell, like the Hoover Dam's Lake Mead, denotes a topical environmental and water shortage concern in the Southwest and West. While the overall theme of the manuscript's exposition is straightforward, the commercial aspects predicated on the recreational boating industry remain complicated. Thus, ongoing debates between the so-called "Friends of Lake Powell" consortium that hopes and counts on an eventual full or nearly full recovery of one or both reservoirs. Contrast this sanguine outlook with the pro-environmentalists who have always lamented the ruinous loss of Glen Canyon's interior environs. As for Lake Powell's advocates counting on an already prolonged drought's equally optimistic return to nominal weather-related standards, a majority of global climatologists are in agreement the global warming phenomenon appears to replicate primal history's incontrovertible evidence based on ancient tree-ring records. Ergo, extremely long periods of drought that lasted for thousands of years. Each repetitive event (three recorded, thus far) also occurred in the western sector of the North American continent. Meanwhile, a capsule summary of this ongoing Q.E.D. (scientific) debate and confident optimism (unscientific) centered on an imminent weather change describes the essence of the author's monograph, starting with the major construction of the Glen Canyon Dam that began in the late 1950s. Once this second-largest dam in the Southwest was completed in the late 1960s, by the early 1980s, Glen Canyon's unspoiled natural habitat was sorely and sadly inundated while some say "drowned" is the more fitting verb. Within a short span of time, the consequence created the second-longest reservoir in the Southwest; that is when Lake Mead and Powell achieved their respective full-pool status at either end of the Grand Canyon. By the mid to late-1990s, however, the prevailing drought had considerably reduced the volume level in both water storage locales. For Lake Powell, its diminished water storage was far worse. There is also another ongoing complication and snag deep below its surface: silt fall-out from the Colorado River's usual heavy sedimentary discharge.
Because the river flows directly into the basin just below Cataract Canyon, when particles filter through the water. Consequently, the transported dust-like silt sediment deposited by water, ice, and the wind never stops. Composed of rock and mineral particles that are larger than clay but smaller than sand, once its stockpile enlarges over time, it congeals, yet never solidifies. Gravity also is part of the process because accumulating silt is analogous to a slow-moving blob of gooey sludge on the 'original floor' of the flooded canyon. Moreover, the deposited accumulation has substantially grown larger over the years.
248 pages 8 X 11 format
Thanks for dropping by. For more about the author's singular life and somewhat adventurous credentials, visit his redesigned website and feel free to contact him (embedded email upper left side). He'll respond. At the near top of the page, there are also lots of videos you might want to listen to and watch.
Dr. Rich and Baxter
Flagstaff, Arizona
https: //www.richholtzin.com
