120 mile pipeline from Powell Reservoir --> Sand Hollow Reservoir

[phantom power]

Just in case there was any doubt that our fearless leaders never got a token to get on the clue-bus regarding the future dry climate here in the SW, they clearly never did:

Dear Friends of Glen Canyon,

The future of Glen Canyon is in jeopardy!

During the past few months, Southern Utah has been swept up in a storm of controversy over Lake Powell reservoir and Glen Canyon. Political powers and private development interests are at odds with environmentally concerned citizens over the Washington County Pipeline, a project proposed under the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 (S. 3636). Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah introduced the legislation in the U.S. senate on July 12th and co-sponsor Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah introduced the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives one day later.

Under the Act, a 120-mile pipeline would be constructed from Lake Powell reservoir to the Sand Hollow Reservoir in Washington County located in south-western Utah. The project would cost up to $1 billion – subsidized by raising the sales tax for all Utahns as well as revenue obtained by the sale of 25,000 acres of publicly owned land to private developers, a land grab that would destroy irreplaceable wilderness in the Zion-Mojave desert region. The pipeline would encourage rapid and unbridled growth of Washington County – a projected 700 percent increase in the current population over the next 30 years. This will be facilitated by piping approximately 70,000 acre-feet of water to Washington County, 20,000 acre-feet to Iron County, and 10,000 acre-feet to Kane County from Lake Powell reservoir annually.

The pipeline would further stress the already over-drawn Lake Powell reservoir, which, according to hydrological projections, will never be full again. It would provide water to a county characterized by its gluttonous thirst – citizens of Washington County already consume the most water per capita of any desert city in the U.S., using 335 gallons per person per day, compared to a national average of 150 gallons. The Act would not include any conservation plans in this arid region, instead encouraging the overuse of water. The pipeline would also damage the sensitive recovery of Glen Canyon by permanently flooding the area. The pipeline would undermine or even preclude efforts to better protect Glen Canyon, such as upgrading it from a National Recreation Area to a more stringently preserved national park.

We need your help at this time to stop this misguided legislation from passing in Congress.

What You Can Do:

1. Call or Write Your Senator:

Urge your senator to oppose the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 (S. 3636). Make sure to include your opposition to the construction of the pipeline and uncontrolled growth of the Washington County area, as well as the auctioning off of publicly owned lands to private developers. Emphasize that you support the protection of national redrock wilderness lands.

Contacting your senator is especially pertinent if he/she sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to which Senator Bennett is urging a hearing within the next few weeks. In order for the respective senators to represent the concerns of their constituents, they must hear from you in the next week. Committee members include:

Republicans:
Chairman Pete V. Domenici (NM) 202-224-6621
Lamar Alexander (TN) 202-224-4944
George Allen (VA) 202-224-4024
Jim Bunning (KY) 202-224-4343
Conrad Burns (MT) 202-224-2644
Richard Burr (NC) 202-224-3154
Larry Craig (ID) 202-224-2752
Mel Martinez (FL) 202-224-3041
Lisa Murkowski (AK) 202-224-6665
Gordon Smith (OR) 202-224-3753
James M. Talent (MO) 202-224-6154
Craig Thomas (WY) 202-224-6441

Democrats:
Daniel K. Akaka (HI) 202-224-6361
Jeff Bingaman (NM) 202-224-5521
Maria Cantwell (WA) 202-224-3441
Byron L. Dorgan (ND) 202-224-2551
Dianne Feinstein (CA) 202-224-3841
Tim Johnson (SD) 202-224-5842
Mary L. Landrieu (LA) 202-224-5824
Robert Menendez (NJ) 202-224-4744
Ken Salazar (CO) 202-224-5852
Ron Wyden (OR) 202-224-5244

[NNadir]

1. That is so terrible, I can't even begin to imagine it.

Menendez will get my letter.

On edit: Done. I added some remarks on how much I hate that dam in the first place.

[Redstone]

2. So, Lake Foul is drying up, and they want to take MORE water from it?

Sounds like bush and them, all right.

The Glen Canyon dam is an abomination.

Redstone

[phantom power]

3. Yes. Even scarier, the Southwest is drying up, and they want...

to keep building more and more and more subdivisions out here. If these bozos were on a liferaft and noticed that their last food was running out, I can only assume their strategy would be to double their daily rations in the hopes of encouraging development of unused life-raft realestate.