By Clark Frauenglass
Glen Canyon Dam/ Lake Powell
August 31, 2015
The day started with the strangest tour I’ve ever been on.
Glen Canyon Dam is like a cross between a children’s museum, and a tightly run
government facility. Armed security guards stood out against a backdrop of
brightly colored maps, vintage camping gear, and inspirational quotes from
famous river runners, invoking the spirit of adventure, and praising the beauty
and power of the river. The tour itself was a tight 45 minute experience,
rushing from one educational sign to the next, accompanied by a constant stream
of facts, numbers, and overly scripted praise for the wonders of hydropower.
Questions about security were prohibited, as were photographs of the guards.
Our guide was constantly calling for us to catch up and move faster as we
stopped to sketch or take photos. She said we had to make room for other tour
groups coming up behind us, but there was room enough for at least 5 groups our
size to pass through at the same time.
Back at the campsite I headed down to join the boaters and
tourists flocking to the man made beach, only to be assaulted by the smell of
gasoline as I crested the hill and looked down on the shore. A substantial fuel
spill from an unidentified boat had covered the surface of the lake in rainbow
patterns, prompting the closure of the beach. On top of that, a congealed
yellow sludge had washed up along the shore, and there had been reports of it
sticking to peoples’ skin, prompting security to call in a botanist. The
security guard in charge of closing the beach was thoroughly fed up and
wandered off grumbling about posting signs in as many languages as he could
think of. I grudgingly went for a swim in the resort pool instead.
That night we watched the film Damnation, which takes a
critical view of our countries obsession with dams, and hydropower as a
so-called “renewable resource”. The film focuses on the damage dams have done
to the ecosystems of our rivers, and the devastating consequences they’ve had
for migratory fish populations. There were also video clips and photos of the area
now covered by Lake Powell’s dead water. Miles and miles of beautiful hidden
canyons and secrets, now buried in silt. One man interviewed dismissed the
destruction, saying (paraphrase) “yeah, we flushed out a few prairie dogs and
such, nothing important, and we made the place accessible to people, we
provided people with water and power to create whole cities!”
Accessible to who? Tourist in yachts? And if you couldn’t
build a city before the dam, should you really build there?
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